


Dagex chronicles

by DaggerlightTheNightwing



Series: Dagex chronicles (Wof fan story) [2]
Category: Wings of Fire - Tui T. Sutherland
Genre: Blood, Clay - Freeform, Dagex, Dragons, Drama, Gen, Gore, Icewing, Moon, Mudwing, Nightwing - Freeform, Rin - Freeform, Sandwing, Seawing - Freeform, Skywing - Freeform, Slate, Sunny - Freeform, Vare, hewwos, mutespeaker, othercharacter, othertagsshutupidonthavetimetomakemoretags, scavenger - Freeform, tsunami, wingsoffire - Freeform, wof
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-27
Updated: 2018-11-13
Packaged: 2019-07-18 08:29:42
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 26
Words: 20,385
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16114664
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DaggerlightTheNightwing/pseuds/DaggerlightTheNightwing
Summary: This is my fanmade story. The tags are for the whole story. Not just a single chapter. Please enjoy.Edit: This part of the story is finnally done! I will probably post the rest of the chapters more frequently now. Tell me in the comments who the main focus should be for the second part, or maybe say some things you liked (or hated, HAHAHAH) about the series this far.





	1. Chapter 1

Section 1: Difference.

 

Three years...a whole three years had gone by. Dagex was adopted pretty quickly after what happened, by a rainwing, Lime, and his daughter Lemon.

“Daggy! Daggy come on!” The little rainwing said, breaking his thinking.

“Yes Dagex,” Lime said, “It's your first day at the academy, you don't want to miss it.”

Dagex nodded and the three started to fly, towards Jade mountain academy. Dagex was excited about the school; he read so many scrolls about it and the teachers. Lime told him that the same teachers were still there...except for the older ones. He didn't know how long that the school had existed, but he estimated that it had been there not very long before he was born.

 

He looked at Lemon. _She probably won't have any classes with me._ He thought. Lemon was almost two years younger than him, so he didn't think they would have any classes together. There was also the fact that she wasn't as smart as Dagex: she was pretty smart, but Dagex was the same way, always thinking about everything.

 

 _I bet the nightwing could help me find out if I have any powers!_ He thought giddily, his talons feeling warm at the thought of powers. _Wait...the scrolls said he never HAD powers. I mean, they said that nightwings DO have powers, but they just couldn't be born with them while they were living in the volcano._ “Dagex!” Lime shouted at him. Dagex snapped back to reality, realizing he had stopped in mid air. He quickly flew forwards, catching up with Lemon and Lime.

 

Not to long after, they had reached the academy. A fairly smaller than normal sandwing was standing at the entrance, with a mudwing. _Oh! That's Sunny! The mudwing must be Clay!_ There were a few other dragonets coming into the entrance, who Sunny and Clay greeted. Of course, they greeted Lime, Lemon, and Dagex as well.

 

“Why hello little ones, you must be more new students!” Sunny said cheerfully.

“Yee!” Lemon squeaked, obviously just as excited.

“What's your name?”

“Lemon!” Sunny pat her on the head. “That's a beautiful name. What about you?” She then asked Dagex.

“D-Dagex, miss.” He stuttered.

“You can just call me Sunny, little one.” Dagex nodded.

“Alright, goodbye you two,” Lime said, nuzzling both Lemon and Dagex.

 

The four went inside and walked around, and soon they split up, Sunny showing Lemon to her cave, Clay showing Dagex to his. _Sunny seems nice. I kinda hope i have one of her classes—._

“So, Dagex, you live with rainwings?” Clay asked, interrupting his train of thought.

“Y-y-yes,” he responded. “Why is that? Why don't you live in the nightwing village?” Dagex didn't wanna answer that, but he didn't have to say exactly why, so it would be ok hopefully. “I...I don't have any Nightwings to live with.” Clay looked at him puzzled. _Oh ya, mudwing. He's the brave and dumb one._ “I don't have any parents.” Clay still looked like he didn't fully understand. Dagex internally sighed. “They're dead.”

Clay’s opened wide after hearing this. “Oh...I'm sorry Dagex…”

“It's fine. It was many years ago. I'm over it. _At least until I get some sort of revenge on those damned skywings._

 

They soon made it to Dagex’s cave. It had a few beds, a mossy bed, probably for a rainwing, a semi large water pool in the corner, for a seawing, and two craggy stone beds near the ceiling. There was also a scroll rack in the room, but Dagex probably wasn't going to use it.

“Well, it looks like your classmates aren't here yet, so they must be doing things. See ya later, I hope,” Clay said gently. Dagex smiled and walked into the cave. “Oh, one more thing. If you ever need to talk, there are plenty of dragons here to help you.” With that, Clay walked away, leaving Dagex alone in the room.

 

Clay had left behind a scroll, and Dagex picked it up. It's his schedule. “Well, at least I won't get lost here trying to find anything,” he said sarcastically, looking for some kind of map. The scrolls in the rack didn't help, they were just dumb stories. His ears perked up as he heard running and wingbeats from close by, and a voice.

Suddenly a bright crimson dragon tumbled into the room.

“Owww. Note to self, _never_ try to reason with that guy,” she said to herself, although Dagex could obviously hear her. Dagex realized what was going on pretty quickly.

_She’s a Skywing._

_I’m clawmates with a murderous Skywing._


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

 

The skywing got up, and blushed when she saw Dagex. 

“Oh uh, were you...in here already?” She said, a little surprised.

“I don't what you were talking about, don't worry,” Dagex responded.

She sighed in relief. “Sorry...I just had a stupid experience with this one dragon. I don't remember his name but I have classes with him...UGGGH!” She snorted, and Dagex just stood there, a little spooked. 

The gong rang, indicating class was about to start. “Oh! Well see ya!”

“Wait!” Dagex rushed. She looked at him puzzled. “Do you know where this is?” He asked and showed her the schedule scroll. 

“Oh! I have that class as well! Just follow me!” She said, smiling. The two started flapping, and rushed to the class cave. It was a scroll ridden, clean room, with five other dragons in it, and a big Jade nightwing.  _ Wait...is this place named after that dragon? No no, it's not, dummy. She must be one of the new teachers. _

She looked at him for a second, looking a little puzzled.  _ Did I do something?!  _ His mind started to panic. Did he do something while he was thinking? His talons shook slightly. “You ok, buddy?” The skywing from earlier asked him quietly. Dagex nodded and the two sat down with the other dragonets. 

“Hello, everyone,” the jade dragon spoke. She sounded a little nervous, as if this was her first time in front of dragonets. “My name is Moonwatcher, and I am your history teacher. A couple of you are new, yes?” Moon asked.

Dagex remained quiet. 

“Hello!” A mudwing spoke cheerfully. “I’m Rin!” 

“Hello Rin, welcome to the academy,” Moon spoke, smiling, then looked at Dagex. “And you?” Everyone turned to look at Dagex, who started freaking out in his head again. 

“I-i-i’m D-Dagex,” he stuttered. Moonwatcher pat him on the head, as a calming gesture. He felt like she was...listening to something.  _ Why is she looking at me like that? _ Moon got up to get some scrolls, and passed them out. 

“Before we begin, why don't you all introduce yourselfs to Rin and Dagex,” Moon suggested.

“I’m Kira,” said a Rainwing.

“Haboob,” a Sandwing said, rolling his eyes.

“And i’m Daring!” Said a seawing, in a heroic sounding voice.

Everyone rolled their eyes at the seawing, and Dagex waved to the three of them.

“Oh ya. Im Slate,” the skywing from earlier spoke up, shaking Dagex's claw. Dagex blushed a little bit, and sat back down. 

The class went on, the scrolls that were passed out to all the dragonets was  _ The legend of Darkstalker. _

“Alright everyone, I want you all to read this as homework, ok?” Moon asked.

Everyone nodded.  _ Darkstalker...why do I feel like I should know that name?  _ He looked up to see Moon, giving him that strange look.  _ Stop looking at me. I didn't do anything!  _ He thought, imagining that she could actually hear him—  _ Wait a minute.  _ He thought with wide eyes.  _ She  _ can  _ hear me. She’s a mind reader! _


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

 

“Dagex, come with me for a second,” Moon said quietly to him, ushering him outside the cave. She led him out and spoke up again. 

“You don’t know I have powers, do you?” She asked. Dagex nodded.

“Ok. Just try not to think anything too bad, ok? I’m bringing my bracelet tommorow, so you won't have to worry.” Dagex just nodded again.

The gong rang, indicating class was now over. Dragonets stormed out of the cave, flying past Moon and Dagex. Slate walked out, and once Moon went back into the cave, Slate went up to Dagex. 

“Wanna head to the next class together?” She asked.

“Who do you have?” 

“Health,” she said. Dagex looked at his schedule scroll. 

“We don't have the same class. I have reading.” 

“Want me to show the way there?” She asked, with a tone of excitedness. He nodded and they flew off.

The library was fairly big, and a few dragonets were sitting together, but most were looking around or reading.

“Well, see ya Dagex!” Slate said. Before Dagex could say goodbye, she flew off.  _ Probably not wanting to be late.  _ He thought.

He walked in fully and was greeted by a nightwing, a female.  _ Another girl teacher? _

“Hello, um...Dagex, is it? I foresaw you coming!” She said with a smile.  _ Oh three moons… _

“Fatespeaker, knock it off,” A calm, and quiet voice said. Dagex looked behind Fatespeaker to see another nightwing, a male with scars all along his snout. His eyes were pale.  _ A blind librarian?  _

“But Starflight, I did!” Fatespeaker whined. 

“Of course a student is going to come to class. And you know his name only because that Skywing that was with him said his name.”

Fatespeaker’s ears drooped a bit.  _ Oh!  _ Dagex almost facetalonned at the realization hitting him.  _ That's Starflight! The nightwing dragon of the old prophecy Lime told me about. _ He felt like a complete snail-brain at not realizing it immediately.

Dagex walked over to Starflight. 

“Hello mister Starflight,” he said, pleased to meet him. Starflight was his favorite of the five prophecy dragons.

“Hello Dagex, it is nice to meet you,” Starflight said, smiling. 

_ He is so cool. Brave too. Though it must be hard being blind like that. _

Another Nightwing, one with a kind of writing board around his neck on a chain. Dagex stepped out of the way for him. The Nightwing tapped his board with his talon three times.

“Oh, MuteSpeaker, how are you?” Starflight asked. Fatespeaker came over for some reason too. MuteSpeaker used his talon to write on his board. 

“He says: Good,” Fatespeaker started. “He wants to know if you have any scrolls on disabilities.”

_ Why would someone need a scroll like that?  _ Dagex pondered.

Starflight nodded and handed MuteSpeaker the scroll, to which he made a series of sounds.  **_Ting ting, tap, scratch._ ** Dagex looked at MuteSpeaker confused. Fatespeaker noticed this. 

“Dagex, MuteSpeaker is...well, Mute,” she elaborated. Dagex just looked even more confused. “He can't speak. That board is magic. He uses his talon to write on it. When he taps it twice, the writing erases so he can write again for communication.”

Dagex almost facetalonned again (he was just being an idiot today!).  _ A dragon who can't speak. Strange. _

MuteSpeaker walked off to go read his scroll.

“So, Dagex, what kind of scrolls do you like?” Asked Fatespeaker.

“Well...I—” 

“Sorry for the interruption, but if I may ask,” Starflight interrupted. “But, are you in any way related to a dragon named Daggerlight?”


	4. Chapter 4

“Who?” Fatespeaker asked. Dagex almost ran out the cave, worried about whatever it is Starflight wanted to know.  _ Does he have powers all along? How would he know that name? Why does he want to know? WHAT IS HAPPENING!  _

“Um...Y-y-yes, sir,” he said as calmly as he could (which was complete nervousness).

“He’s my father…” Dagex continued. Fatespeaker looked at Starflight again, who had a worried look, though you could only tell because of his drooped ears and lowered snout.

“Daggerlight used to be a student here...before he...well…” Starflight tapped his talons together, not wanting to finish.

“Before he disappeared,” said a dragon coming into the cave. She was a sandwing, with a strange messed up tail without a barb.

“Thank you Sunny…” Starflight sighed.  _ The sandwing prophecy dragon. _ Dagex looked down.

“Then we got the news just about a few days later...about how he murdered two nightwings in the rainforest,” Sunny started.

“One of which being his father,” Starflight finished for her. Dagex was shocked, but didn't show it.  _ Is this why he was never around? Was he killing dragons for no reason? Would he kill everyone related to him? Why? No...he would have killed me and mother a long time ago. Is he even alive? _ Dagex pondered that last thought the most. This was something he had to know, now.

“Is...is he alive?” He finally asked. All three dragons looked at him.  _ Kinda strange how no other dragons are listening… _

“We don't know,” Sunny said with a sad look on her face.

“If he is, he is contained. Either that or he stopped being dangerous,” Starflight started. “The only reports of his murders are those two Nightwings. There were two other reports, but those ended up being self defense, since there was a witness both times, each being different dragons. They both said that someone was trying to kill Daggerlight, and he just defended himself. One was apparently an accident, while the other was on purpose, but he killed a murderer, so he didn't get in a huge amount of trouble or anything.”

Fatespeaker looked sleepy, probably from that short little lecture. Dagex was wide awake however, wanting to know all about this, since it could help him in the future hopefully. 

“It sounds like he just made a mistake once. Why is everyone so mad at him?” Dagex asked. It just didn't make sense. Why would the skywings be after him was the question that he couldn't answer in any single way, or have any sort of other theories for or anything. It didn't make sense.

“Because he ate his father's heart…” Sunny said. A few dragons heard this and almost puked, including Starflight.  _ That...that makes sense. _

“But why are the Skywings after him?” Sunny and Starflight looked very confused.

“What do you mean?” Sunny asked. 

“The skywings!” Dagex repeated, “They are after my dad.”

Sunny, Starflight, and Fatespeaker looked at him even more confused. 

**_Gooonnnnng_ ** .

“Dagex, you should go to your next class now, ok?” Sunny said to him. Dagex nodded and flew off. He saw a map on the way out, looked at his schedule, and flew of to the cave for his next class.

_ Well, first impression, strange lonely nightwing who defends a murderer, too smart, and just overall weird. _

He wanted to just leave. He wanted to go away.

_ Things won't be like this forever. I'm gonna be fine… _

_ I hope. _


	5. Chapter 5

Fresh air, finally! The class was outside, in an open patch of field. His schedule said this was battle training: something he could use a lot. A seawing stood on a wide wooden platform. There were a few other dragonets there too. Not many though. 

_ Let's see… _ Dagex thought as he looked around. A Skywing and a Mudwing were talking together, a seawing was looking at her scroll, and two nightwings, one of them being Mutespeaker, were testing how sharp some of the weapons were by planting them in the ground.  _ Smart, nobody will get hurt that way. And why is that mute dragon here? _

“Ok class,” the seawing teacher spoke, “I am Tsunami for all of you who are new here.”

_ The seawing prophecy dragon...the powerful one. Good choice for battle training. _

“Today we will be doing...well, the usual: pick a weapon and go all out on a training dummy. We have lots of different weapons here.”

“Um, ms.Tsunami?” The seawing spoke up, kind of quietly. 

“Yes, Dike?” 

“Why do we need this training? The war is over, we don't need to fight.” Tsunami and the other dragons looked at him, though the nightwings were just looking since everyone else was. The skywing looked like he wanted to hit that seawing in the snout.

“Well, Dike, we never know when someone might try to start a war again. It's happened before, and we need everyone to be able to protect themselves and their fellow dragons,” Tsunami said, sounding like Starflight for a second.

“Oh, ok, that makes sense. Thank you miss,” Dike nodded and stopped talking. Dagex saw the skywing roll his eyes.  _ Skywings… _

“Now, we will go one at a time, and see what you can do,” Tsunami said. “Now who should go first. Hmmm...How about the new Nightwing, Dagex, correct?”

“Yes, miss.”

“Why don't you go first?” Dagex nodded and walked forward. He picked up a small sword kind of blade, with a hooked handle of sorts, so a dragon could wield it. He looked at the dummy, and ducked, then lunged forward at high speed, going under the bottom of the dummy, grabbing the leg, held his front claws on the top, and plunged the dagger into the dummy’s neck, piercing the scales. He then kicked off of the dummy while pulling the dagger out, and plunged into its back, then got off, pulling the dagger out again.

“Well done, Dagex!” Tsunami said, smiling. “You would make a great assassian. Although that would not be a  _ great  _ thing, but still, amazing job!” 

Dagex’s tail wagged as he held his chin up proudly.

“Next? How about you, Vare?” Tsunami said, directed toward the skywing, who smirked and walked forward, grabbing a spear.

Vare immediately threw the spear at the dummy, and it surprisingly hit it in the head, going right through.

“Good throw, but that won't be enough to defeat a moving target, or one that can move its claws, for that matter. You can't expect every single hit to work, Vare.”

Vare growled to himself and walked back into the group of dragonets. Dagex saw the Mudwing trying to comfort him.

“Rin, would you like to go next?”

The Mudwing nodded and came up, and looked at the weapons. He decided on a pair of steel blade weapons, ones that had straps so you could fit them on your claws. Rin charged at the dummy and side stepped, slashing the dummy in the side thenducked and made both of the steel blades go into the dummy's leg, then he slid under it and slashed at its underbelly, making tons of fluff fall out. He got out from under it.

“Wow, well done, Rin. Excellent claw to claw...or, well, Katar to claw combat,” Tsunami said. (Katars are hand daggers that you strap to your hands/claws.)

“Th-thank you miss,” Rin said, blushing a bit.  _ These dragons can fight well. _ Dagex thought, then looked at Vare.  _ And someone might take it too far. _


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

 

Mutespeaker went next, then Dike, and then the other nightwing. All three of three of them did fairly well, Dike didn't do extremely well, but not terrible. After the gong rang, everyone went to the lunch cave. It had a big entrance you could fly in and out of. It had a beautiful view as well.

“Dagex!” A familiar voice called to him. Dagex turned around to see Slate, running up to him then stopping when close enough.

“Oh, h-hello Slate,” Dagex said, almost blushing for some odd reason.  _ Stop that! You don't like her. She's a skywing! _

“Wanna eat together?” She asked. Dagex nodded and the two went to a counter and got some fish, which Dagex noisily gobbled down as fast as he could. Slate giggled at this, and Dagex just blushed in embarrassment. “S-s-sorry,” he said.

“It's ok Dagex, It's kind of cute honestly,” she reassured him, smiling. Suddenly, a small rock flew through the air and hit Dagex in the snout.

“Ow!”

“Hay! Nightwing!” Dagex heard. He looked in the direction of the voice and saw the Skywing from battle training, Vare, walking towards him with an angered look. “You think you're tough, don't you?” Vare asked, with a more angered tone than his look. 

“No. I just think I can fight.” 

“Oh right,” Vare said sarcastically. “You think you can just outshine all of us.”

“Are you the only one that thinks that?” Dagex said, smirking. Vare looked around, not alot of dragons were looking at them, and none of them supported Vare. “Yep, only you.”

Dagex only had time to blink before Vare had lunged through the air at him, hitting him in the side with a claw, but Dagex threw him off, only to get lunged at again. Vare got extremely close to blasting Dagex with fire, but Slate got Vare’s mouth shut right before. Dagex and Slate got Vare off, and just in time, because Clay had arrived and ran over to the three. He pulled Vare away from the other two, and made him go to his cave.

“Are you okay, Dagex?” Clay asked, helping Dagex onto his feet. 

“Yes, I’m ok.” He simply responded.  _ Skywings… _ .

Dagex looked at his side; he was ok. Clay let go of him and he started to walk away, toward his cave. 

“Dagex, where are you going? Class is going to start in a bit,” Clay said. Dagex didn't respond and just kept walking, both Clay and Slate looking at him worryingly.

_ I’ve already made an enemy.  _ Dagex thought. He knew something bad would happen, though he thought that other dragons would make jokes about his dead mother, and how he basically doesn't have a father. He lashed his tail at the wall in anger, poking it deep and making it bleed a bit, making Dagex yelp in pain and clutch his tail.

A little bit of blood dripped on the wall.  _ Idiot! You're going to get yourself killed eventually. _

Dagex continued to walk to his cave, just wanting to be alone.

And then a knife flew through the air.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

 

Dagex roared in pain as the knife hit him in the snout, not going very deep somehow but still piercing into his nostril. A few dragons, including both Sunny and Clay, came running and saw what had happened, and Clay quickly pulled the knife out, making Dagex wince and hold his claw on the wound. 

“Three moons! Are you alright Dagex?!” Sunny asked with a scared, concerned voice. Dagex just looked at her with an ‘NO I'M NOT!’ expression, and she started to lead him to the infirmary. He was laid down and patched up his snout. Dagex winced but didn't scream, even though he was in pain. 

About twenty minutes later, the nurse dragons had patched his snout up. They put a bandage on him that covered both the outside and inside part of the hole in his nostril.

Dagex was sent out, and was told he would be ok. He then went back to the lunch cave, where everyone was starting to head to their next class. Clay was on the balcony of the large opening of the cave, talking with a few of the students. Dagex had hunting next, and Clay was the teacher. The mudwing saw Dagex, and motioned for him to come over, which he did. 

“You ok, Dagex?” Clay asked. Dagex nodded. One of the dragonets, another Mudwing, looked at the bandage. 

“What happened?” He asked. 

“I got a knife through my snout,” Dagex responded simply, “it just flew at me.”

“So...an animus attacked you?” Another one of the dragonets spoke up. She was an Icewing: Light blue and with silver tipped horns and light blue tipped talons.

“Um...I don't know,” Dagex said, “It didn't seem like it though.” 

The Icewing just looked at him with narrowed eyes. Then the gong rang.

“Ok everyone, it's time to start class. Now, we will be hunting for whatever. Bring back whatever you find, and then we can eat it all!” Clay said, enthusiastically saying the last bit. “Whoever brings the most food gets a little prize as well.” He added.

With that, everyone flew out to go hunt for food. Dagex went west, to a patch of forest with moss everywhere.

_ This place feels strangely relaxing.  _ He thought: He had been here a lot when he was younger. He walked around, looking at basically everything. 

“What are you doing?” A voice said, making Dagex jump. He looked behind him to the Icewing from earlier. “Shouldn't you be hunting?”

“I just wanted to see this for a minute,” he simply responded. He didn't want to say why he wanted to. The Icewing looked at him in a puzzled and annoyed sort of way.

“By the way, what's your name?” He asked her, curios. She stepped toward him. 

“Sleet,” she said bluntly.

“That's nice,” Dagex said back, not being able to think of any other words. Sleet just scratched at the ground with a claw. 

“You know what, you can do whatever you want, I'm gonna go do what I'm  _ supposed _ to do,” Sleet said, then flew off. Dagex watched her leave and sighed.

_ Two. Two enemies. _

_ Though I doubt either of them hurt me.  _ He felt the bandage on his snout.

_ Then who did? _


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> (I merged chapter 8 and 9, so thats why this chapter is longer than usual. Also I forgot when I posted chapter 9. Im sorry Im not exactly smart.)

Chapter 8

 

Dagex _did_ hunt, just not very much. He brought back a few mushrooms and a couple rabbits. That was it. Nobody questioned it though, to his relief. The others brought back lots of animals: Rabbits, elk, even a bear.

“Good job everyone,” Clay said, smiling, “Now let's bring all this back to the academy and eat!”

With that, everyone flew up with their hauls and went back to the cafeteria cave. Dagex just picked at a few of his scales; some had marks on them.

Sleet was the one who brought a bear. She got a little necklace made out of its fur as a reward. Sort of strangely barbaric in Dagex’s opinion but he guessed that it would be fine. He just wanted to know why Sleet was so...mean. She didn't sit right in Dagex’s mind, and he spent the rest of class trying to figure her out.

Nobody had paid any mind to him before (or even after) the gong rung. He just headed to his next class, language.

“I don't need this class,” He mumbled to himself, “I know how to speak. I've known for a long time. I bet I'm gonna be with a bunch of two-year olds.”

When he got to the class, he was surprised to see a bunch of dragons about his age, including Slate, Vare, Rin, and in a moment, Sleet even showed up.

_All the dragons I've met. Well except one or two i think._

There were only two dragonets he didn't know, and the teacher, an Icewing. Slate saw Dagex and waved, patting the ground next to her, where Dagex then sat.

“By the way, that's Winter. He's kind of weird when it comes to those things,” Slate whispered to him. Dagex looked confused, so Slate pointed to a monkey looking thing in a big cage set up like a home. It was a pale creature with bright yellow fur on its head, with cloth and fabric on its body.

“Hello class,” Winter spoke up with the kind of voice you'd hear from a wise, but trying-hard-to-sound-in-charge type of dragon, “My name is Winter, and it appears we have a new student.” He said that and just looked at Dagex, not even saying his name.

_Strange._

Dagex looked at the creature in the cage, which Winter spotted. “This, is a scavenger. They have been around for a long time. Some say even before dragons,” Winter said.

 _Why do I feel like scavenger isn't the right word...I want to call them something like...Huma---_ Dagex almost jumped when his thinking was interrupted.

“And we are going to learn their language.”

Dagex sighed when he heard this. He knew it was pretty much impossible...and boring. If they can’t speak the same language as us, then they can’t.

“Um, sir?” Dagex spoke up, “Why do we _need_ to? It’s not really a big deal.”

Winter looked at him with a near-death-stare, making Dagex gulp in fear.

“S-s-sorry sir…” he stuttered. He saw Sleet roll her eyes. _Oh shut up icewing...it’s my first day._

“These scavengers are smarter than any of you know. They can draw, write, possibly even read, so it’s not too far fetched to think that their language isn’t too far off from ours.” Winter said, obviously wanted the dragonets to feel the same way. _So?_

“Now I know _some_ of you don’t think it’s important,” He continued, looking at Dagex again, “but let me assure you, my dear dragonets. This could be a leap in dragon history! Maybe even unity between two species!”

 _Oh shut up…_ Dagex thought, annoyed. He didn’t care about those things at _all._ Dagex hadn’t even heard of them before up until now, which, to him meant they weren’t exactly important. _Wait...I’m starting to sound like dad…_ Dagex didn’t know very much about his father. He was only with him and mom for around a year or two. The only memories Dagex had of his father was of him being mean to his mother, or neglecting the nightwing dragonet.

Winter snapped his talons in Dagex’s face, making him jump.

“Pay attention nightwing. I’m speaking,” he said in that affirmative tone. Slate looked over at him and gave him a pitiful look.

“Thanks…” Dagex just wanted to go home at this point. He wasn’t having much fun, and so many dragons clearly hated him with a passion.

Winter kept on talking the whole time. A few of the dragonets looked interested, surprisingly. Dagex was as bored as ever. It was a miracle when the gong rung, and everybody could leave class.

“That’s the last class for today, right Dagex?” Slate asked, probably just quizzing him.

“I hope so,” he replied. The two kept on walking through the tunnels, until they finally got to their cave.

“Sooooo how much do you love this place, Dagex?” Slate asked him excitedly.

“It’s...nice, I guess,” Dagex responded. Slate frowned for a second, but quickly smiled again. “I’m going to take a nap.”

“Oh, ok then. I’ll be in the library if you wanna hang out more,” Slate told him.

After Slate left, Dagex got on one of the rocky beds in his cave. It was really uncomfortable, but the other beds were probably occupied by other dragons.

 _This was a strange day._ He thought, touching the bandage on his snout. He nearly forgot it while he was in Winter’s class. _Got hit with a knife, met some strange dragons, and learned more about dad._ His thoughts froze on that, like time just stopped when he thought about that one, specific, dragon. “Daggerlight…” he whispered to himself. “My father. A murderer.”

He soon fell right to sleep, thinking more of his father. Not very long afterwards, his eyes opened to an endless, void-like room. It was all black, lit by nothing. He heard voices: only one that could be made out.

“Well, it took you long enough,” the voice said. It’s voice was scratchy, like someone who had been clawed in the neck. Dagex waited for a little bit, to see if the voice was really there. “No words, Dagex?” The voice chuckled a bit. Dagex narrowed his eyes, though confused. Then the void started to fade from existence. The last words he heard before he woke up were from the same voice, but it sounded demonic.

“Kill, Dagex. Bathe in their blood!”


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

 

Dagex sighed when he heard this. He knew it was pretty much impossible...and boring. If they can’t speak the same language as us, then they can’t. 

“Um, sir?” Dagex spoke up, “Why do we  _ need  _ to? It’s not really a big deal.” 

Winter looked at him with a near-death-stare, making Dagex gulp in fear. 

“S-s-sorry sir…” he stuttered. He saw Sleet roll her eyes.  _ Oh shut up icewing...it’s my first day. _

“These scavengers are smarter than any of you know. They can draw, write, possibly even read, so it’s not too far fetched to think that their language isn’t too far off from ours.” Winter said, obviously wanted the dragonets to feel the same way.  _ So? _

“Now I know  _ some  _ of you don’t think it’s important,” He continued, looking at Dagex again, “but let me assure you, my dear dragonets. This could be a leap in dragon history! Maybe even unity between two species!”

_ Oh shut up… _ Dagex thought, annoyed. He didn’t care about those things at  _ all.  _ Dagex hadn’t even heard of them before up until now, which, to him meant they weren’t exactly important.  _ Wait...I’m starting to sound like dad… _ Dagex didn’t know very much about his father. He was only with him and mom for around a year or two. The only memories Dagex had of his father was of him being mean to his mother, or neglecting the nightwing dragonet.

Winter snapped his talons in Dagex’s face, making him jump.

“Pay attention nightwing. I’m speaking,” he said in that affirmative tone. Slate looked over at him and gave him a pitiful look. 

“Thanks…” Dagex just wanted to go home at this point. He wasn’t having much fun, and so many dragons clearly hated him with a passion.

Winter kept on talking the whole time. A few of the dragonets looked interested, surprisingly. Dagex was as bored as ever. It was a miracle when the gong rung, and everybody could leave class.

“That’s the last class for today, right Dagex?” Slate asked, probably just quizzing him.

“I hope so,” he replied. The two kept on walking through the tunnels, until they finally got to their cave.

“Sooooo how much do you love this place, Dagex?” Slate asked him excitedly.

“It’s...nice, I guess,” Dagex responded. Slate frowned for a second, but quickly smiled again. “I’m going to take a nap.”

“Oh, ok then. I’ll be in the library if you wanna hang out more,” Slate told him.

After Slate left, Dagex got on one of the rocky beds in his cave. It was really uncomfortable, but the other beds were probably occupied by other dragons. 

_ This was a strange day.  _ He thought, touching the bandage on his snout. He nearly forgot it while he was in Winter’s class.  _ Got hit with a knife, met some strange dragons, and learned more about dad. _ His thoughts froze on that, like time just stopped when he thought about that one, specific, dragon. “Daggerlight…” he whispered to himself. “My father. A murderer.”

He soon fell right to sleep, thinking more of his father. Not very long afterwards, his eyes opened to an endless, void-like room. It was all black, lit by nothing. He heard voices: only one that could be made out.

“Well, it took you long enough,” the voice said. It’s voice was scratchy, like someone who had been clawed in the neck. Dagex waited for a little bit, to see if the voice was really there. “No words, Dagex?” The voice chuckled a bit. Dagex narrowed his eyes, though confused. Then the void started to fade from existence. The last words he heard before he woke up were from the same voice, but it sounded demonic.

“Kill, Dagex. Bathe in their blood!”


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

 

Right after waking up, Dagex made himself walk to the library, needing to tell Slate what just happened.  _ Weird...wait, _ He stopped for a minute.  _ That was a dream, right? I mean, with all the weird things I’ve heard, it could be real. Maybe it’s that Darkstalker guy? No...I heard he was turned into a different dragon. _ He pondered what the dream he had really was, then shook his head and kept walking.  _ Something about it isn’t right. Who was that voice. And why in three moons did it want me to KILL anybody!? _

He walked past a bunch of caves with dragons studying, talking, and some looked at him with looks of pity for the whole knife thing, and some...unfriendly looks.

When he walked into the library, Slate saw him immediately, and rushed toward him. 

“Dagex, come look at this,” she whispered, which was surprising to him. She took him over to the back, and picked up a scroll that was hidden on the ground, that said:  **_Bloodwing: an essay by…_ ** The name was torn off, so nobody could see.

“What in three moons is this?” Dagex wondered aloud, softly. 

“Maybe we should ask Starflight,” Slate suggested.

The two went up to the front desk, scroll in claw. 

“Hay, um, mister Starflight, we found a scroll that I think isn’t part of the library,” Slate said, curiosity showing through her voice. Starflight picked it up (with help by Slate putting it in his claw) and felt around it. “It says ‘Bloodwing’ on it.”

Starflight’s ears perked up. 

“This…” Starflight paused, “Thank you for bringing this to me,” he sighed. Dagex tilted his head.

“Who wrote it?” Dagex asked the librarian. Starflight felt around more, feeling the torn off part where the name would be. 

“The writer must have torn it off. This is probably an essay. I remember someone writing it, and hearing about it, but I don’t know who did. Maybe one of the teachers can help...but I think I shall hold onto it for you,” Starflight told them in the longest way possible for Dagex.

Dagex and Slate both sighed. Everything about this seemed strange, though Dagex knew it wasn’t going to just stop. He had to know who wrote this though. It was clearly important for  _ something _ . 

“Come on, let's go find out,” Dagex said to Slate as quietly as he could. She nodded and the two of them walked out of the library.

“Weird…you think that scroll might be important to him?” Slate pondered aloud. Dagex looked at her for a second, but didn’t say anything.  _ It  _ has  _ to be. Something like that doesn’t just show up out of nowhere. _ Dagex told himself. 

They walked all the way to their cave to figure out who they should ask. 

“Obviously we should ask Moon about it. She clearly knows alot, right?” Dagex asked.

“Just because she can read minds doesn’t mean she knows everything, Dagex. And she’s one of the  _ new _ teachers, so I’m positive we need to ask someone who has been here a while,” Slate responded, “Starflight would have been the best option honestly, but he doesn’t know.”

The two kept thinking, until someone came up to the cave. They turned to see Sleet.

“What do you need to show?” She asked, a smirk on her face.

“Nothing of your concern,” Dagex snorted. Slate tried to get the icewing to shoo, but she just came into the cave instead.

Dagex tried to push the icewing away with his front claws, and Sleet grabbed his legs and shoved him back a bit. Dagex growled at her, then Slate came up between them. 

“Ok, stop it you two, or else we’re going to get in trouble,” she said, pushing Dagex away from Sleet. “Sleet, what do you want?” Sleet smirked and spit out a tiny frozen shard of ice.  _ Weird Icewing trick. _ Dagex thought.

“I just want to help you two out, if you will let me,” Sleet said, confidently. Dagex just gave her a death stare, until the three dragonets heard something. Something _ loud _ . Something  _ deadly. _


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

 

All three of their heads perked up and in the direction of the noise. 

“What was that?” Slate asked, a little worried. She turned to see Dagex already running towards the sound; Sleet following. “Wait up!” Slate shouted, running after him. Dagex ran as fast as possible toward the sound, knowing well that somebody was in danger. In a flash he stopped to see both Vare and Dike, fighting. 

Dike was bleeding from his side, claw marks all over his chest, while Vare had blood all over  _ his  _ claws. It was obvious what that skywing had done. 

“HAY!” Dagex shouted at the skywing before lunging at him. Vare flinched and leaned to the left, then side tackled Dagex into Dike when Dagex got close.

_ Ughhh...I hate skywings so much!  _ Dagex said to himself, lunging at Vare again, and getting him with his claw in Vare’s arm. Vare, however, got a talon in Dagex’s chest, and shoved him off, scraping his talon as he did so, forming a big bleeding scar on Dagex’s chest. The Nightwing roared, and quite a few dragonets came up to see what was happening. Some were shocked, but most were just cheering...mainly for Vare. It didn’t look like anyone cared about the victims here.

“Well, it seems like  _ somebody  _ is popular~” Vare said in his cocky tone, then grabbed Dagex. “Don’t you dare tell anybody, or that scar will go right through you next time.”

With that he pushed Dagex and walked off, Clay, Tsunami and Sunny running up right after he left.  _ I hate when bad guys get the convenience.  _

“What happened?!” Sunny said as soon as she saw both of the injured dragons. Then gave a sort of ‘this dragon again? What is wrong with him’ kind of look at Dagex when she saw his wound.  _ Thanks a lot...not like I’m important for some reason. I feel like a damned protagonist here, miss! Gimme some slack!  _ Dagex thought, as if Sunny could hear him. He wanted to just get up and go to his cave. And...that’s exactly what he did. He got up, and started to walk off, when Clay put a claw on him.

“Wait, what happened here, Dagex? Who hurt you two?” The mudwing asked, quite calmly. Dagex just shrunk a bit to get the claw off him, not saying a single thing. “Dagex!” Tsunami sternly said, “Tell us or we will have to put you in detention!”

“Don’t care. I just want to be alone. Away from other dragons for a while,” Dagex responded, and flew through the tunnels. 

After a bit he was outside the mountain, in a big patch of forest around the mountain, and went into a little cavern. “WHAT IN THREE MOONS IS HAPPENING!” He shouted, throwing rocks and whacking stalactites until his tail was sore and nearly bleeding. He stood still, and breathed a few times. Something felt off with him.

_ What is wrong with me today?  _ He asked himself. He was just so...angry. He’d never acted like this, ever. He was always a good Nightwing. Sure, he had been mad before, but it only ever lasted a few minutes. It was never like this. He decided to sleep on it. Maybe if he got some rest, he would feel alot better. Calmer. Anything…

He woke up in that familiar void.  _ Of course… _ He looked around, then tried to walk forward, but was met with strong, black vines reaching up and grabbing his legs. 

“What the?” Dagex said quietly. He wasn’t alarmed much, since this was just a dream, but it was still weird nonetheless.

His ears suddenly perked up, and then he roared in pain as some unknown force started to, somehow, make his wound on his snout and chest sting like the sun was inside them. A very familiar voice spoke up as he was screaming.

“Welcome back, Dagex,” It started, “Come back for more… ‘advice’?” Dagex bit his lip but didn’t respond due to all the pain. “Probably not, but you need some anyway. All the dragons you’ve met: The two skywings, the seawing, the nightwing, even the idiot mudwing and the icewing, are all important for something bigger than you can know. Oh yes, and there are a few dragons who will be of major importance as well. But you will know who they are in time.”

_ Just let me punch you, you snail brain!  _ Dagex thought. Maybe he can read his mind. The voice’s silenced answered that. 

“WHAT!? WHAT IS SO IMPORTANT?” Dagex managed to shout through the pain. A dragon faintly materialized in the void. He was dark purple from what Dagex could see. The dragon also seemed to had light colored claws and horns...not white, but a light shade of something. It looked so familiar though.  _ A nightwing. _

“The answer is with the other dragons. It’s a puzzle, Dagex. All of you have your pasts and secrets. Knowing those things will help you. I can give you one hint though,” The nightwing spoke. His voice was a lot less echoed like it was earlier.

“Find the tower.”

Dagex woke up right after the nightwing said this.  _ What in the...whta does he mean? And...wait...where am I? Why is it so dark? _ He tried to move but he felt something pull him back.  _ Chains?! Where am I?! _

He saw two blasts of fire that ignited two lamps, and two dragons stepped forward.

They were both purely black: Black talons, black tails and underbellies, black  _ everything! _ What were these things?

“This is him. The son of Daggerlight.”

Dagex’s eyes widened. He was terrified, not knowing anything about these mysterious dragons. A third dragon, with golden talons and horns made of platinum came up to Dagex.

“Dagex, son of Daggerlight,” he started, and grinned, “Welcome to oblivion!”


	12. Section 2: Gathered.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> (Authors note: each chapter in this section will have a part following Slate, and one part following Dagex. They will be seperated by a two line gap, until they group back up, which then Slate and Dagex will both get attention in same part)

Chapter 12

 

Both Slate and Rin were hanging out in Slate’s cave. Slate was pacing, tapping her talons as Rin watched.

“It’s morning...where is he?” She said, worried. It had been nearly a whole day since Dagex just disappeared out of nowhere. It didn’t make sense at all...where did he go. Everyone had been looking for hours last night, even in the more hidden places. Clay had found a spot near the place Clay and his class hunted. Rocks had been thrown, and overall there were signs that Dagex was there. Clay said that there were two things that may have happened. One being that Dagex was just angry...or that he was captured. The signs pointed to the former though, so nobody was freaking out too much. Just kind of sad.

“He...he should turn up eventually,” Rin stammered, “He has to. I mean, he  _ was  _ pretty upset, which is natural.” Slate looked at the mudwing, and tried not to think to hard about her friend.  _ Where are you dagex? What happened to you?  _ She thought. Dagex  _ had  _ been upset. Slate saw when he and Vare were fighting, and she understood why Dagex would be so mad about that. He was just protecting another dragonet, that's all. But what made Slate confused is why he wouldn’t let the teachers help him. Clay, Tsunami and Sunny sounded understanding when they tried to ask him about what happened, but Dagex just...left. He said he wanted to be alone, but Slate couldn’t figure out why he couldn’t talk to anybody about this.  _ And why didn’t he let them help with his wound? _

“Um, Slate?” Rin asked, kind of quietly. Slate looked at him again.

“Ya?” She responded.

“Do you...um... _ like _ Dagex?” Slate whacked him with her tail, making him wince a bit.

“Yes! He’s my friend! I like  _ all  _ my friends, even you, squid-brain.” She teased, though Rin sighed in response. Slate had only a few friends here: Dagex, Rin, that mute nightwing, and a Rainwing whose name she couldn’t remember for some reason.

**_GONNNNNNG!_ ** “We should head to class. Cmon Rin!” Slate said, and the two ran off to class.

  
  


“WHAT? What do you mean? Why am I here!?” Dagex nearly shouted, struggling in his chains. The gold-horned dragon just grinned wider.

“Why, this is the Darkwing tower, young one. You of all dragons should know about us.” A realization went off in Dagex’s head.  _ The tower. That’s what the voice was talking about! _ He growled at the Darkwings, knowing something was obviously wrong about them. “Let me introduce myself. My name is Dracos, the king of the Darkwings,” Dracos Said, trying to intimidate Dagex. It didn’t seem to work though, as Dagex just snorted and looked the king straight in the eyes. “Yes, you will be perfect for us.”

Dagex shifted from looking like he wanted to kill the guy, to looking quite confused. Dracos just smiled. 

“What do you mean? What even  _ are  _ Darkwings?” He asked.  _ If I’m gonna get anywhere, or get any info, I guess I just have to play it safe and do what he says… _

The darkwings went up to Dagex and took off the wall chains, but left the ones on his legs and wings on him. They prodded him forward as Dracos led them out of the room. What Dagex saw in the following huge room didn't seem too far from the norm: Stone furniture, carved statues, and other things. The strange thing was that the only light was a single large torch on the roof in the center of the room. There was a throne in one end of the room, which Dracos sat on, and motioned to bring Dagex up.

The two darkwing guards shoved Dagex forward, making him fall onto his stomach near Dracos. 

“Well? What do you want with me?” Dagex asked, annoyed. Dracos wouldn't stop smiling at him. 

“We want to recruit you, Dagex,” Dracos said. This wasn’t going to be good…

“We darkwings are, well, dark,  _ EVIL  _ creatures. Five years ago we came and roamed pyrrhia, turning dragons into shadows of themselves. Then...a certain nightwing came along and stopped us...not alone of course. He trapped us away in this tower, and we have been here ever since. We got our revenge, though. We spread a virus that infects dragons. It stays within the dragons who have it, so they have to spread it themselves by getting the darkwing venom into them. I had gotten a bit into that nightwing, and turned him over to our side. We would try taking over the world, but there aren't many of us, so we need to recruit dragons one by one,”

Dagex’s eyes went as wide as a boulder. He knew exactly what was coming.

“This is your family Dagex, and you won’t ever leave.”


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13

 

Slate was in her history class, listening to the teacher talk about the story of when Darkstalker had risen up, and she and her friends, most of whom were now teachers here like her, defeated him, and turned him into a precious dragonet. It was kind of sweet honestly. Class was only half over, and Moonwatcher was nearly done with the story.

After about fifteen minutes, the story was done.

“Any questions?” Moonwatcher asked.

A rainwing, Kira from what Slate remembered, rose her claw up. “Yes Kira?”

“Why didn’t you just use magic to negate the whole immortality thing and, I don’t know,  _ kill  _ him?” Kira asked, snarkily. Moon nearly glared at her. 

“Because violence isn’t the answer to everything, Kira,” Moon said, hiding that slight annoyance inside her. Nobody else had any questions, so most of the dragons talked with each other. Slate, however, went up to the teacher, who noticed her immediately.

“Yes, Slate? Is something wrong?” The jade dragon asked.

“You...can see the future, right?” 

“In a way. I sometimes have visions. It’s called precognition.” Slate didn’t say anything for a moment, mainly since she thought saying it in her head was better. “It’s about your friend, isn’t it?” Moon said, putting a reassuring claw on Slate’s back. “If I see him in any visions, I will tell you, okay?” Slate nodded and walked off, sitting alone and reading until the gong rang, letting her go to her next class. 

Vare walked to Slate quickly, though she ignored him.

“You know, I’m sorry for...well...driving your friend away, Slate,” Vare said, sighing. Slate stopped and the two looked at each other. It was surprising to see such a mean dragon actually being even slightly nice for once. “Maybe we should try and find him, right?” He smiled, which kind of made Slate nervous, but it seemed like he actually cared for some reason. 

“I thought you hated him,” Slate mocked, which Vare just snorted at.

“I was just giving him a hard time. He’s new, and he has to be prepared for whatever will happen in the future.” Slate just stared at him in the eyes and blew a tiny ball of fire on his claw. 

“You could have  _ killed  _ him!” She said him.

“ _ He  _ nearly tried to kill  _ me  _ too!” The two butted their heads together, rage burning within the two skywings, until Vare finally unlocked.

“Fine! I want to find him though, so I will just go by myself. Maybe Rin or that Icewing will go with me,” Vare said, and walked through the tunnel, leaving Slate to wonder: Should she follow him? Would it be worth it? Something in her told her that it would be better to just wait…

_ So that’s what I’m going to do. _

  
  


Dagex was put into a small chamber, not a cage, but a regular room with books and stuff in it. He didn’t read any of them though, since they were either from a long time ago or just super boring. This whole room was boring, which wasn’t surprising. The king, Dracos had locked him in here so that he couldn’t escape or even roam around. 

“Some  _ family _ ,” Dagex muttered under his breath. He laid on the floor for around a whole hour, doing absolutely nothing, until he heard claws fidgeting with something metallic.  _ Probably just taking me out to see the king. _

He looked at the door and was greeted with a Darkwing dragonet, though it was sort of hard to tell due to his appearance. He still had mostly black, nightmare colored scales all over, though they were only about seventy percent of him, unlike the usual ninety to hundred percent on all the others. He had random splotches of rusty brown that made it looked like he had meteorite instead of scales, and he had bronze colored horns and claws. The meteorite colored scales were twisted with the black all over his tail in a spiral pattern. The dragon waved his claw in front of Dagex’s face.

“Hay, Nightwing. I’m here to get you out,” He whispered, and Dagex’s whole body wanted to jump from excitement, and also a bit of terror. “My name is Draacos, son of the obvious.”

“Why are you breaking me out?” Dagex asked, “Won’t the king be extremely mad?”

Draacos snorted quietly. 

“I hate him. I don’t want to be evil. I can’t just be turned into one of them.  _ I  _ have a choice on what I want to do, but only if I can get out of here.”

“Then why haven’t you done it before?” 

“Because now he is focused on  _ you.  _ Not me. Perfect time to get out.”

Draacos motioned for Dagex to follow him, which he obviously did, trusting Draacos for some reason. Draacos grabbed Dagex and hid the two of them in a hole on the ground, as two darkwing guards passed by, completely silent. Once they were gone, the two flew up to a hatch at the top of the big room. This wasn't the throne room of course, but nearly as big. Draacos opened the hatch, which led outside. Dagex immediately flew out, bumping Draacos, who soon followed. They were outside, and hopefully safe for now. 

_ At least until they realize we’re gone. _ He looked at Draacos. 

“Now what?” Dagex asked. Draacos just moved his head and looked at Jade mountain. The hatch wasn't too far away, but it was hidden quite well. 

“Wait...how did you get us out?! Wasn’t it locked?” 

“This one dragon unlocked it, as my father probably told you.” Dagex rolled his eyes, and started walking towards the academy. 

“You coming Draacos? I think if I tell the teachers what happened, they should let you in,” Dagex said, and Draacos smiled. 

“That would be awesome,” Draacos said back.

_ It will _ , Dagex thought,  _ But the others need to know. And I need their help to stop those things. _


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14

 

“Uhhhh, not sure, Slate,” Dike said, worriedly. Slate wanted to get her other friends to go help look for Dagex. She had Mutespeaker, and she was trying to get Dike to go along too. “I mean, we might get in trouble, or get dragonnapped, or worse,  _ killed _ !”

Slate sighed at his worrying. Mutespeaker wrote on his little board,  **Dike, it’s ok. We aren’t going away from the mountain,** then after erasing it by tapping it twice and writing again,  **just outside. Nothing to worry about.** He smiled.

That dragon made Slate happy. The fact that he can’t speak yet has a way to actually communicate, plus that board was neat in how it worked. 

“Ya Dike, we aren’t going far, and it’s Lunch, so we have plenty of time,” Slate reassured him. Dike just whined and scratched one of his talons on the ground. Slate rolled her eyes.  _ Not even willing to help friends…  _ Slate thought to herself.

“Fine,” The seawing said after a moment, “But I don’t wanna go far. Just a little outside.” Slate and Mute (I’m just gonna call him Mute for simplicity’s sake) nodded and the three of them starting walking to the entrance. 

As they got to the entrance, two dragons could be seen in the distance, one of them perking up and running towards the three. Slate gasped when she saw him and ran toward him, the two hugging right away.

“DAGEX!” She exclaimed happily, “You’re okay!”

“Oof, too tight, too tight!”

Slate let go of the blushing Nightwing, tapping his snout with a talon.

“What happened? Where did you go?” She started, then looked at the dragon with him. He had weird brownish scale spots on him. “And, who’s he?” Dagex sighed.

“Long story. This is Draacos,” he said, gesturing to the strange dragon, who tipped his head to greet them. Mute wrote on his board,  **I think he looks cool.**

Something seemed off, however. That dragon didn’t look much like a Nightwing; too much of one color and a strange color. Maybe a hybrid? Those are rare, but possible. Could be a Mud/Night hybrid. Slate thought a bit more, and the hybrid thing  _ did  _ make a lot of sense, so she let it go for now.

“HAY! You’re already back?!” A voice yelled.  _ Not him again… _

Vare, Rin and Sleet walked up to the group, Vare eyeing Draacos with an obvious, immediate dislike. “Who’s this freak?” He snorted. Slate looked at Draacos, who just ignored the insult.  _ Level headed, it looks like. Weird… _

“Hay! I’m talking to you!” Vare said, tapping Draacos using the back of his claw. “Answer me! Who are you?” Draacos just turned his head to him.

“If you would have been here a minute ago, you would have heard,” He said calmly. Vare just twitched his eye and tripped Draacos onto the ground using one of his front legs. Draacos got right up and stared Vare right in the eyes. “You might want to stop that.”

Vare just nearly roared and tried to tackle Draacos, who quickly rolled so that the lunging dragon hit the floor, missing him entirely. 

“Guys, calm down,” Slate said, to no avail. The two stopped, but only because Draacos saw a big dragon coming towards them. Slate looked behind her to see Moonwatcher. 

“What’s going here?” She asked, then looked to see Dagex and Draccos. She smiled. “Dagex! I’m glad you’re back!” She said, patting him on the head for some reason. She didn’t ask about Draacos though.

“Um,” Dagex started, clearing his throat. Everyone looked to him. “I have a story to tell.”

 

Dagex told them everything, from the voice in his dreams, to the whole darkwing stuff. Everyone was shocked, confused, and overall wide-eyed, except for Vare of course.

“That’s...such a strange thing,” Moon said, putting a claw on her head and thinking.

“So,” Vare started, “Evil dragons. And  _ he  _ is their prince? And you  _ trust  _ him!” Vare growled at Draacos, who just looked away from the skywing.

“He got me out of there!” Dagex retorted.  _ Skywings… _

“This is...not good. I need to tell the others,” Moon said, hurryingly walking away.

Everyone looked at each other. 

“Everyone you met here is involved with this,” Slate said. Everyone looked at her. “That’s what your dreams told you? And you’re sure it’s referring to this?”

Dagex nodded. 

“I...I don’t want to be a part of this.” Dike said, gulping. Surprisingly, nobody else was choosing  _ not _ to, or at the very least, not saying anything about wanting to help or anything. Dike looked at everyone and whined. “Fine, I’ll help. But only if I  _ have _ too.”

Dagex thought to himself for a moment, and, finally, he was ready to say it. 

“Tomorrow, at dawn, we need to leave, and find a way to stop those dragons.”


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15

 

The rest of the day went on as usual, aside from the teachers being a little worried about Dagex, for obvious reasons. There were so many things Dagex, and others, wanted to know. What will the Darkwings try to do? Why? What was going to happen to everyone? And most importantly, what do we do?

He couldn’t stop thinking about it for the whole day. He had gotten all of his group to go to his cave after classes were done, so they could at least try to have a plan.

“Why do we have to do this tomorrow? Can’t we at least wait a few days?” Vare asked. Dagex took a moment. 

“Because, tomorrow we are gathering info and, you know, anything  _ but  _ going to that tower,” Dagex said. Vare nodded in agreement. It was weird to see him not being such a bully. “Draacos, what can you tell us? You told me you  _ can't be turne dinto one of them.  _ What did you mean?” Everyone looked to Draacos.

“Darkwings have a certain kind of corruptive venom. If a good amount of it gets into you, it eats away at your soul, and sometimes other, more important things,” Draacos said, and a few of the group looked down, probably scared of what they might be getting into. “It’s not instant, but there is no cure...at least none that I have found.”

“This sounds...way too dangerous,” Rin said. The others, besides Dagex and Slate, nodded. 

“We have to help though. Or else  _ everyone  _ could be in danger,” Slate said back. She was right. This was a major thing, and all of them had to stop it.  _ Everyone here must be chosen. _ Dagex thought.

“One more thing. Something that I clearly need to mention,” Draacos said, inhaling a bit. Everyone looked at him again. “A prophecy I heard in my dreams. It told me that a group of dragons would help stop the Darkwings, and the war they are about to create,” he sighed and then recited.

“ _ Darkness is rising, Oblivion is coming.” _

_ “A group of hero’s, born to bring the light.” _

_ “The loudest heart, with a decisive morality.” _

_ “A fiery soul, trained and pure.” _

_ “Rage incarnate, With a blooming heart.” _

_ “Earth’s core, hidden inside a mind.” _

_ “A dragon of difference, in many ways.” _

_ “A Frozen solid will, a shell to be broken.” _

_ “A wave of hope, a rising tide of anguish.” _

_ “The son of a tyrant, the messenger of the prophecy.” _

_ “And the young warrior, a harbinger of light.” _

_ “All of these dragons, all of these heroes are coming. Banishing darkness, and saving all of dragonkind.” _

Nobody said anything for nearly a minute. All of them were speechless, until one of them spoke up.

“So, let me guess,” Sleet started, “Those lines are referring to us.”

“The first two are about the darkwings. The others are about us,” Draacos responded.

“Well, we know which one  _ you  _ are,” Vare said, staring Draacos down. Rin nudged the skywing gently.

“Vare, he’s on our side. If he wasn’t, we wouldn’t know about any of this,” Rin whispered. Vare nodded in understanding. 

“So what do we do?” Dagex asked. They all looked at Draacos. 

“First off all,” He started, looking at everyone, “There’s one of us missing.”

Dagex immediately started thinking.  _ One more dragon I know...That one rainwing? One of the teachers? _ He kept thinking, but couldn’t figure it out. His thinking was cut off by the voice of a dragonet.

“BIG BROTHER!!” Said a little dragonet who jumped at Dagex, giving him a big hug. He blushed at the little one, and a few of his friends were chuckling.

“Ummm—.” He got cut off again. He looked up to see Lime, his foster father.

“D-dad?! What are you doing here?” Dagex asked, confused and looking at the dragonet hugging him.

“Dagex, a patrol found a lone dragonet in your old home,” Lime said, and Dagex went went wide eyed, “They found a dragonet inside, and a hatched egg. Dagex, this is your little sister, Rainshard.”


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter 16

 

“My little sister? How do you know we’re related?” Dagex asked. Lime explained that the egg had hatched about two years ago, and that this little dragonet had somehow fended for herself for that long. That seemed impossible, but extremely impressive nonetheless. It said it hatched there, which meant it had to be Dagex’s mom’s egg.  _ Or my dad’s. _ He thought.

“We brought her here so you could look after her. Aaaaand so she can get an education. We signed her up for classes before we came to see you.” Lime explained. Dagex looked at Rainshard, who had stopped hugging him and was now introducing herself to his friends. “Well, I have to go now. Take care of her Dagex, and keep doing your best.” Lime smiled, and Dagex did the same, before the rainwing left.

“Awwwww! She’s so cute,” Slate said, patting the young dragonet on the head. Even Vare and Sleet were smiling, so they clearly weren't heartless, thank the moons.

After Rainshard was done meeting everyone, Draacos went up to Dagex. 

“Dagex, we need to talk,” he said. Dagex let him lead him out of the cave.

“What is it, Draacos?” He asked, whispering.

“That little one...I have a feeling about her,” he started. Dagex knew exactly where this was going. “She might be part of the prophecy.”

“You might be right, Draacos,” Dagex sighed. He didn’t want this newly found family to be a part of this. He wanted her safe, not in danger. 

“Don’t tell her yet, ok Dagex? We don't have to bring her yet,” Draacos said to cheer Dagex up. 

“Alright,” Dagex responded, nodding. At least she could be here a while before getting into any real danger. Or  _ any  _ danger, for that matter. The two went back in the cave, and after a bit more talking, everyone went back to their own caves. Draacos and Dagex walked Rainshard to her cave, then parted ways for now. The two decided to go the library, and see if there was anything they could find out about darkwings.

“This place seems strangely familiar,” Draacos said, looking around the library. 

“The library? Or the academy? Did you go here when...you weren’t in that tower?”

“In a way. I couldn’t go to the actual mountain, but I had a messenger that would send me the assignments that the teachers gave me. Then I sent them the finished ones back.” 

That must have been hard for Draacos, not being able to go to school, and yet still be able to do the work and stuff. How did he get educated without anyone talking to him.

“For the most part, Father taught me. Though I rarely ever listened of course. I hate him so much,” Draacos said, cursing under his breath. The two went over to the shelves of scrolls and looked through for anything about Darkwings, or anything like that. 

“Nothing. They probably know nothing about them,” Dagex whispered to Draacos.

“Obviously, but it never kills to check. In my opinion, we should figure out who matches what in the prophecy,” Draacos whispered back. Dagex wasn’t thinking very hard of the prophecy, but that  _ was  _ a good idea.

“There are a few obvious ones. The  _ rising tide  _ must be the seawing,” Draacos started, and Dagex nodded. “The  _ frozen solid will  _ is the icewing. And the  _ dragon of difference, in many ways _ Is that mute nightwing. Though, that’s it for the obvious.”

Dagex thought for another minute.  _ Draacos was the son of a tyrant, but that one is clear as glass, so of course we don’t need to mention that.  _ Dagex thought to himself. 

He jumped as a dragon tapped him. He turned and saw Fatespeaker, one of the librarian, Starflight’s friend. 

“Can you come here a second, Dagex? Starflight would like to show you that scroll you found the other day,” She said. Dagex and Draacos followed her to the front.

“Here he is,” she said to Starflight. He nodded and opened the scroll about the ‘bloodwings’, and handed it to Dagex. 

“I think you should read it,” Starflight whispered to him. Dagex looked at it and read it to himself, Draacos looking as well. 

_ There is a presence, one that is watching us all, or, at least, trying to. It’s a feral creature, one that knows only bloodlust. It doesn’t speak. It seems like a normal dragon, a nightwing, but when extremely angered, starts bleeding, all of its scales and body covering in acidic blood. It cannot be permanently killed, but it goes to its regular nightwing form when it is presumably defeated. It’s filled with rage and is nearly impossible to handle due to the blood. To whoever reads this...be careful of the bloodwing. The one called Daggerlight. _


	17. Chapter 17

Chapter 17

 

Dagex stared at the scroll for such a long time. He was...he felt so many reactions inside. Anger, confusion, fear, and other things. He couldn’t believe what he had just read. 

“Wait a minute,” Draacos started, looking at the scroll carefully again, “That’s  _ my  _ essay! I wrote that like...a year ago.” Dagex looked at Draacos, his eyes twitching. 

“You  _ knew  _ about this?!” He yelled at Draacos, who just stared him deep in the eyes.

“I forgot, Dagex. It was so long ago, and there hadn't been any reports.”

Dagex just growled at Draacos and, after a few seconds, just ran off, roaring inside. The adult dragons didn’t chase after him, but the other few dragonets in the library were staring in that direction, then at Draacos. “Give him time,” Draacos said, “He just needs to yell it off.” With that, Draacos walked out of the library, in the direction of where Dagex ran off to.

 

“AGGHHH!!” Dagex roared, whipping his tail around at trees in anger, then started yelling at the sky, “WHY?! WHY CAN'T YOU JUST LEAVE ME ALONE! I DON'T WANT ANY OF THIS!” He stopped whipping his tail and sat down, hiding himself with his wings and crying. “It’s not fair!” He said, still crying, “Why  _ me?  _ Why does  _ my  _ life have to be so cruel!? What did I do? WHAT!?” He just wanted to crawl up in a ball and sleep for the rest of time.  _ Who cares about the world anymore. There wouldn’t be anything I can do anyway. All my friends would just keep the answers to themselves.  _ A...dark thought came into his head.  _ That voice! It...I-It told me to  _ kill  _ them! My friends!  _ He nearly laughed to himself maniacally.  _ It was  _ warning  _ me about them! I have to kill them. Then everything will be ok… _

He shook his head and whacked himself in the head with his tail. “What am I talking about?” He whispered to himself. “That’s not right. I-i-i'm going insane. I haven't eaten today, I’m stressed, and…” he started crying again. “I don’t wanna be here anymore. I just wanna go home and be happy again.”

A tiny pool of tears had formed under him. He was crying for around ten minutes, and nobody had come to see him, which made Dagex slightly glad. He didn’t want anyone here to see him like this. He wanted to get it all out on his own.  _ Why Draacos, why didn’t you tell me...no...you just forgot. Everyone does. It’s okay, it’s okay. I need to calm myself. Father isn’t here. He’s nowhere. He’s probably dead by now.  _ Dagex thought. Nothing felt right, especially in his head. He needed rest, so he just went to sleep right there.  _ The voice...it can tell me… _ Dagex quickly drifted off to sleep.

He woke up in the by now familiar void, the dragon waiting for him.

“Dagex…” it started, but Dagex interrupted him.

“Give me answers! I need to know what’s happening!” Dagex screamed at the dragon at the top of his lungs. The dragon narrowed his eyes and snorted. 

“First, DON'T INTERRUPT ME, INSOLENT WHELP!” The dragon roared, Dagex going deaf for a split second. “Second...I’m not going to give you any answers in the state you are in. You don’t deserve them yet.” Dagex looked at the dragon and twitched his eyes. He roared and tried running at the dragon, but ended up getting grabbed and the feeling of being impaled by spikes of fire coursed through his body, making him scream in pain. “Third, Dagex, never, ever, oppose me. You may be a hero, but you have to see that for yourself. And if you don’t want me to kill you in the real world, you’ll do it right. None of this ‘Darkness inside coming out’ like I had.”

Dagex looked at him, trying not to scream. “Me and you have things in common, but don’t get any ideas, Dagex. Lots of dragons are like that, where they start pure, but they let their own emotions change them into something...evil. Don’t turn out like that, Dagex. You need to stay pure if you want to save anybody.”

“I,” Dagex started, groaning through his words, “I don’t want to save them! I want to go home! I want to be free!”

The dragon looked at Dagex, and threw him. Dagex landed on the...sort of ground...with a thud. The pain had gone away. 

“Dagex. You were born to be this world's savior...though if you fail, or you turn evil, we  _ do  _ have another option.” Dagex growled as the dream started to fade.

“If you fail, Dagex, You will befall this responsibility to your sister.”


	18. Chapter 18

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> (Since This story is on my school ipad, i have to post the chapters on weekdays when in school, so to make up for not posting for the last couple days, Im posting the rest of section 2 [Chapters 16, 17, & 18] today. YAY! Might even post all of section 3 throughout the week!

Chapter 18

 

His body felt cramped when he woke up. He had no choice for saving the world, but he still didn't want to do it. 

_ NO!  _ He said to himself.  _ I  _ have  _ to! It’s my responsibility. I can’t just abandon everyone. I care about them. I won’t let them all die, or worse, be turned into killing machines.  _ He felt like something was glowing inside him. It grew and grew, and he looked at himself. A small spot of scales on his underbelly had turned golden. He heard something drop on the ground and looked in front of him. A pendant with a piece of onyx embedded into it had fallen in front of him. He picked it up; it felt like it was radiating energy. He put it on, and suddenly he a bit calmer with it on.

“Something’s off about this…” he whispered to himself.  

“Dagex,” a voice spoke. It sounded like it was all around him.

“Who’s there?” He asked.

“That isn’t important. That pendant you are wearing, it has great power concealed into it. It will reveal itself only once you have had your biggest revelation. However, some of its lesser powers can be revealed without a big revelation.” It responded to him.

“Let me guess, my friends will get these too?”

“That is correct, Dagex. The pendants powers have to do with the elements of the world. They will help you take down the Darkwings, and save Pyrrhia,” it said to Dagex, before it just...stopped talking. 

_ Weird. _ Dagex thought.  _ None of this seems...possible. It seems so strange. But if they are going to help, I probably shouldn’t tell the others, or else they might never get theirs. _

Dagex flew back to the academy, thinking hard. He got to the entrance and walked all the way to his cave. He missed a few classes, and he saw sleet outside when he walked through the cafeteria cave. He flew down, realizing what class it was. The icewing noticed him when he swooped down.

“Finally, Nightwing,” She said, snorting. Dagex apologized for being late, and Sleet rolled her eyes. “Class started a few minutes ago. Better catch up to the group.”

Dagex nodded and ran forward, eventually slipping into the group. Clay saw him and smiled a bit, but kept talking about the lesson. He was teaching the class about sneaking up on their prey better, which, to Dagex, was impossible for the big mudwing to do. After he finished talking, he took a breath.

“So, would anybody like to try?” Clay said. Slate raised her claw, and Clay let her come up. Clay went behind a bush and closed his eyes, taking place as the prey. Slate got on the ground and quietly crawled toward the bush, waiting ten seconds to make Clay think she gave up, when suddenly she grabbed Clay, who shrieked a bit.

“Heh, good job, Slate,” Clay said, proudly. Slate chuckled and the other dragons clapped their claws. Slate blushed and went back into the group, next to Dagex. 

“Hi Dagex,” she whispered to him. 

“H-hi,” Dagex responded. Clay saw a deer nearby and everyone went quiet.

“Dagex, would you like to try?” Clay whispered to Dagex. He nodded and started walking over to the deer as quiet as he could. His pendent faintly glowed as he got closer, and he looked like he was fading. It glew slightly brighter when he was close, and when he finally leapt at the deer, his body felt a little numb. He looked just like a shadow.  _ Wait...I didn’t hit it?  _ He thought as he heard the deer running away. It was right there? How did he miss? He looked back at the others, all of their eyes wide open. He then looked at his pendent. There was a reason he didn’t hit it. It  _ was  _ right there.

He just phased right through it.


	19. Section 3: Past

Section 3: Past

Chapter 19

  
  


_ Well, something else that’ll make me an outcast,  _ Dagex thought. The pendant must have done that...there wasn’t any other explanation. Everyone was looking at him, and he felt like he should just run away.  _ But I know better than that. _

“Dagex? Wh-what was that?” Clay asked, sounding kind of frightened. Dagex didn’t answer. Slate went up to him. 

“That was AWESOME!” She exclaimed, making Dagex blush. She kept giving him compliments and questions like; how did you do that? what did it feel like? Is it a nightwing thing? He could tell Slate was trying to make him feel better, and, honestly, it was helping quite a bit. The dragonets started talking to each other, though Dagex couldn’t hear them. Sleet was watching him closely.

_ She must think I’m a threat. _ He thought to himself. 

“Oh, um, Slate? What happened to Draacos?” Dagex asked his friend curiously.

“He got assigned to classes, of course. He has history with us, and flight training with me,” Slate answered. Dagex and Slate went to the back of the crowd, and class went on as normal. 

“What in three moons was that, nightwing?” Sleet asked him quietly. Dagex looked at her, and so did Slate. He didn’t know exactly how to answer without revealing the pendent’s power, so he answered the normal way.

“I don’t know. I just...started to feel numb when I tried to attack that deer, and the next thing I know, I’m on the other side of it, like there was never a deer at all.”

Sleet studied Dagex’s face for a moment, then sighed.

“Fine, I’m going to give you the benefit of the doubt. But  _ only  _ because something like that could just be a dumb nightwing thing,” she snorted, then started ignoring them.

“ _ She's _ cheerful,” Slate whispered sarcastically, “ _ Suuuuuuuch  _ a sweety.”

Dagex rolled his eyes.  _ She’s on our side though, so I’m going to trust her. _

For the last ten minutes, everyone mainly socialized, but Clay went up to Dagex. 

“Dagex, can you explain that?” He asked, obviously still a tiny bit freaked out.

Dagex shook his head, and Clay frowned. “Come see me at the end of the day, please.” Slate looked at Dagex as Clay walked away, and nuzzled the poor nightwing.

“Thanks Slate,” Dagex said, smiling, “You’re an awesome friend.”

“Hay, I’m happy to help, you know,” Slate responded, smiling back. It was nice to know he had good friends here, amongst all the things that had happened. In the distance, the gong rang, and all the dragonets started flying back to the academy. 

“Well, Dagex, let’s go,” Slate said, and the two flew back.

“By the way, weren’t you in a different class than me? Why were you in my hunting class?” Dagex asked. She wasn't there last time. She went to a different class.

“Oh! Right. They said I could be in that class today because they wanted me to greet you if you came back to class, since they see how good of friends we are.” She said to Dagex.  _ The teachers care about me too. _ Dagex said to himself. That made him feel good. He needed the support. Him and Slate flew into the academy and went to Winter’s class.  _ My least favorite teacher, _ Dagex thought. He hated this guy, all mean and scavenger-loving. It made him a little sick. A dragon nudged him, and Dagex saw Draacos right next to him. 

“Oh, hay Draacos,” Dagex said to him.

“Hello, Dagex,” he responded. He was faintly smiling. 

“So, it seems we have a new student. Come over here,” Winter started, and Draacos came to the front. “What is your name? Tell us about yourself.” Dagex could see that Winter didn’t exactly care too much, but maybe it was just regular. Dagex could also see Draacos tensing up a bit, since he can’t say anything about the Darkwings.

“My name is Draacos,” he stated in his regular tone: no suspicion at all. 

“And?” Winter groaned a bit, “Anything you want to add? Maybe your tribe?”

Draacos didn’t so much as stare Winter in the eye. He didn’t even hesitate for more than a moment. 

“I never met my parents. I’m pretty sure I’m a hybrid though, just not sure of what. I grew up in a secluded cave system, away from the world,” Draacos said, and Winter must have bought it, since he ushered Draacos to go back to his seat after a moment. Winter looked at Draacos, who just looked back without expression. Draacos was seated next to Vare, who Dagex didn't see up to that point. He looked at his other friends: Sleet and Rin, who were there as well. Dagex and Slate sat next to each other, thank the moons. 

Winter went to get his scavengers, and only a few seconds later, everyone jumped as he roared, and turned to the class with the look of pure anger on his face, and teeth bared.

The class saw the cage behind him. There was blood in it, and one of the scavengers’ heads was left in it. 

“Who did it!?” He roared, “WHO ATE MY SCAVENGERS!?”

Everyone looked at each other, then at Sunny and another sandwing running in.

“What happened?” The male sandwing said.

“SOMEONE ATE MY SCAVENGERS!” Winter yelled at him. Sunny gasped and looked away when she saw the sight. 

“Who would do this?” She asked, then looked at the class. “Um...you all are excused. Go back to your caves until the final gong rings, please.”

Everyone got up and started walking out, but Dagex and Draacos walked slowly, and listened in.

“Winter, I’m sorry about your scavengers, but it looks like…” Sunny started, and Winter finished for her.

“We have a murderer in the school.”


	20. Chapter 20

Chapter 20

 

“This isn’t good,” Draacos whispered to Dagex once they started walking back to their cave. Draacos scratched his head with his claw, thinking. 

“I don’t think it's a  _ murderer,  _ since it wasn’t, you know, a  _ dragon  _ that was killed. Just a lower species. Besides, whoever ate them probably didn’t realize that they were important to anybody,” Dagex responded. Draacos looked as if he wasn’t listening, but Dagex knew he was.

“Nobody would just eat a couple scavengers here. They would know better, Dagex.”

The two kept thinking when they were back at the cave. Slate was waiting for them.

“What’s wrong? Did you hear anything?” She asked, concerned. Draacos looked at her. 

“They said there’s a murderer,” he said bluntly.

“Buuuuut,” Dagex butted in, “I think it’s just a misunderstanding!” Draacos looked Dagex right into the soul (at least to Dagex that's how it was). 

“Dagex, not everything is complex and forgiving. Things like this can be simple, clear-cut, and easy to see. You’re too soft on others, and you need to fix that,” Draacos said in his informative, yet mentor tone.

“I’m not soft!” Dagex spoke up, wanting Draacos to understand completely. Dagex knew he could be a fierce dragon. He helped Dike from getting bullied by Vare, he...wait...that, that was it really. Dagex trusted most dragons after a short time, and didn’t give any of it a second thought after that. He  _ was  _ sorta soft, but not very much.

“As for  _ you _ ,” Draacos continued, looking at Slate, “You need to learn to watch your back, and not trust every dragon you see. The two of you have lots in common. Probably more than you know. However, not everyone will be like the dragons you have befriended here. Others can be conniving, deceiving, and ready to stab you in the back at any time...and not always metaphorically.”

Slate lowered her head, and Draacos said more. “And don’t take every criticism you get. Learn to deal with what dragons throw at you. You can be as much of a warrior you want, And that goes for you too, Dagex, and all of your friends.”

“What about  _ you _ ?” Dagex asked. 

“Me? I’ve had time to discover my faults,” Draacos responded.

“And? Let me guess, you have fixed yourself?” Dagex asked.

“No. Living with dragons that are the essence of evil makes it quite hard to do any good.” Draacos sighed. Slate looked at Draacos’s scales, specifically the shining brownish patches.

“Do you know what tribe you’re  _ really  _ from, Draacos?” Slate asked. Draacos sighed again and sat down, looking at both of them, and nodded.

“Well, it shouldn’t be much of a surprise but, I’m a hybrid of  _ two  _ unknown tribes,” he started, Slate and Dagex didn’t give a huge reaction, since they really just wanted to hear more. “It goes back all the way to right after the scorching. A few meteors about the size of three boulders each had been found near here, where the Underground Darkwing tower is now. It was above ground eventually, however,but that happened only less than a decade ago. The meteors were broken by some dragons, and...what came out...were glittering brown or red dragons, depending on which meteor they came out of. There were apparently about thirty of them in total. They called them Meteorwings, of course. Certain animus dragons were afraid of them, and put mostly all into eternal sleep so they could study them. Nine died from the studies, while three of them were kept and were allowed to roam free. The other eighteen had been forgotten; put underground, but never died. It was discovered that they didn’t need food or water, so the only way to kill them is by physical means. Or...well...they can’t be in water. It hurts them, and pretty much melts their scales away, since their scales are pretty much made of meteor. Fast Forward to only fifteen years ago. The Darkwings had risen, and had discovered the meteorwings underground. My father, their king, Dracos, woke them from their slumber, and put a spell on them that made them unable to leave the darkwings. Almost all of them were converted to Darkwings, but Dracos wanted to make me so he could have an army. He waited eight years. There were only three females, and my father and a couple other darkwings...mated with them. All three of the females died giving birth, but Dracos had five new meteorwings that he would raise, and you know what he would do with some of them. So, yeah, that's how I came to be.”

Slate and Dagex just looked at each other, wide eyed.

“Wait, so there are four more of those hybrids?” Dagex asked.

“Yes, but I’m the only one who was born with any sort of morality. I wasn’t affected by my fathers spell when he realized he couldn’t just shape me in his image normally. He kept trying, knowing he couldn’t just kill me. I was the only one related to him, and if he killed me, everything would go to chaos in the future. The other four had a choice, too, but they actually chose to be evil.”

There was silence for a moment.

“Well I don’t care!” Someone said behind them, grabbing Draacos by the neck and wings. It was Sleet! “You’re  _ evil! _ And nothing can change that!” She growled, and prepared to breath ice on Draacos. Slate dove to save Draacos, and when Slate fired… She had frozen Slate’s wings nearly solid. She roared and fell with Draacos to the ground. 

“OWW!” Slate wailed and screamed. Dagex went up to her, horrified. “It hurts! It BURNS! How can Ice BURN?!”

Dagex looked at Sleet and tackled her. 

“What in three moons is wrong with you!?” He yelled, tears welling up. Dragons had peered up to see the scene, and Dagex could only guess that the teachers were coming. 

“Dagex, he is  _ evil _ !” Sleet yelled back at the nightwing. “He’s tricking you!” 

“No he isn’t! He’s helping us!” Dagex said, and bit Sleet on the leg, making her roar and nearly freeze him, before he closed the icewing’s snout. Tsunami, Sunny and Moonwatcher had come up to see what was going on, and Tsunami pulled Dagex off of Sleet. 

“What are you doing?!” Tsunami yelled at him, growling. Dagex still wanted to cry. 

“SHE FROZE MY FRIEND’S WINGS! AND SHE TRIED TO MURDER DRAACOS!” Dagex screamed to the seawing. She looked at the others. Moonwatcher was helping Draacos, while Sunny got Slate up, and started to lead her to the medical cave.

Moonwatcher came up to Dagex and Tsunami.

“I have bad news,” she started, “I had a vision...and...as Draacos has told me, it isn’t some random dream. There’s a prophecy.”

“No! No prophecies!” Tsunami said to Moonwatcher.

“It’s not for us. It’s for these dragonets and a few of the other students. Draacos, I will need you to tell me who is part of it. Once we get all of them...Dagex, Draacos, and whoever is part of all this...I’m sorry but, until all of this is over, all of you will be exiled from this academy.”


	21. Chapter 21

Chapter 21

 

“But I didn’t do anything! Nothing has happened yet!” Dagex said as Tsunami escorted him out of the academy. “At least let me say goodbye to Slate.”

“Sorry Dagex, but none of us want any part in this. We are  _ done  _ with saving the world and stuff. It’s  _ dangerous and stressful _ !” Tsunami responded to him, pushing him out. 

“But—” he tried to say, and Tsunami just snorted at him. 

_ But my friends…  _ Dagex thought. His friends wouldn't know where he was.

“Can the others at least stay?”

“No! They’re part of that stupid thing!” Tsunami said, nearly scolding him. Dagex flinched a bit then stepped back, and Tsunami looked him right in the eyes.

“Do  _ not  _ come back, Dagex. For all of Pyrrhia,  _ never  _ come back,” Tsunami told him, and, once she walked back into the academy, he too walked away, back to his little hiding cave.

_ This isn’t fun. This isn’t good. I hate it so much! Everything about this is just torture!  _ Dagex thought to himself.

**_“Then why don’t you do something about it?”_ ** A strange voice spoke. Dagex’s head perked up. 

“Who’s there? Where are you?” He almost yelled. It laughed, and he realized something. It was in his head. A  _ voice _ , in his  _ head! _ “Oh great, I’m going crazy,” Dagex rolled his eyes. Maybe he wasn’t  _ crazy _ . It could just be, maybe, that strange void dragon.

**_“Noooooooot exactly.”_ ** It said to him.  _ Great...it can read my mind.” _

**_“How else are you supposed to talk to me, snail-brain?”_ **

Dagex growled, and held his head. 

“Nope. Not real. Too many things going on! Just stress!” Dagex kept saying, and rammed himself into the cave wall.

**_“Stop it, Dagex.”_ ** The voice said, slightly sounding worried.

“It’s not real! Get out of my brain!” He shouted and looked at a small fallen stalactite on the ground, and picked it up. 

**_“Dagex, don't do it,”_ ** The voice shouted at him,  **_“Calm down!”_ **

He wasn’t going to listen to a trick. It’s not real! Dagex hadn’t eaten in about two days if he recalled right. He broke the stalactite in two, keeping the tipped half in his claw. He took multiple deep breath, and started to run the tip along his back until blood started to drip. He ran it again, slightly deeper. More blood came out.

**_“STOP IT! YOU’RE GOING TO KILL YOURSELF!”_ ** The voice screamed at Dagex. Dagex wasn’t trying to kill himself, he just wanted the voice to go away. He just wanted to be free from the stress. He went a little deeper into his back until the pain made him roar and throw the stalactite away. Blood oozed from his back; a small, narrow gash formed from the cutting. Dagex slumped over, sobbing hard.

“Why? Why why why?” Dagex kept whispering to himself. “What is wrong with me? Why am I like this? Why can’t the world just let me be? Do the moons hate me? What did I do!?” He was already in a puddle of his own tears and blood. A dark purple puddle, nearly the same color of his own scales. 

**_“Dagex,”_ ** the voice started,  **_“You need to stop this. Everything will be ok.”_ **

Dagex bore his teeth in anger. 

“How would you know!?” He yelled. For a second he had no answer.

**_“First, use your thoughts to communicate. Second, trust me, everything_ ** **will** **_be fine. Just give it some time.”_ **

Dagex sat up, and stopped crying.  _ Maybe...but how long will that take?  _ He tried to say to the voice, but it didn’t respond. Dagex heard footsteps, and Draacos poked his head into the cave, and sighed.

“There you are,” He said, walking up to him and seeing the gash in his back and the purple pool. “Here...Let me fix that, Dagex.” Draacos touched the gash, making Dagex wince, and in mere moments he felt it healing. Dagex turned around to look at Draacos.

“You...You’re—” Dagex was cut off before he could finish.

“Yes,” Draacos started, “A prince, a meteorwing, and also an animus.”


	22. Chapter 22

Chapter 22

 

Dagex stared at his friend for a moment, until Draacos finally spoke again.

“Yes...an animus. This is the only time I’ve used an actual spell though, so I’m not going to turn evil or anything. I only used my magic cause you would have bled out i bet,” Draacos said to him. 

“I’m sorry,” Dagex responded, and Draacos put his wing on Dagex’s shoulder. 

“It’s ok. There’s nothing to be sorry for. Just...please don’t hurt yourself.” 

Dagex started sobbing again and leaned into his friend’s side. He just wanted to be happy, but it looked like that wasn’t possible yet. Once everything is over, peace will be the only thing Dagex will feel.

“What’s going to happen to my other friends, Draacos?” Dagex asked.

“They will come with us, don’t worry. They are going to be safe with us around,” Draacos reassured him. That made Dagex feel better, for the most part.

 

Later that day, the whole group met up, and left the area. Dagex thought it would be a good idea to lead them to the darkwing tower, so they at least knew where it was, obviously.

“This is it,” Draacos said, looking discouraged by his former home, “They’re down there, whenever we’re ready.”

“Where are  _ we  _ going to go?” Sleet asked. The others started thinking. 

“There should be a patch of forest near the diamond spray delta that we could hide in,” Dike spoke up, not quietly for once. Draacos thought for a moment. 

“Not a bad idea, but hard to navigate to since most of us don’t know exactly where that is,” Draacos said.

“We could cut through the mountains,” Sleet suggested.

“Hmm...Tiring, but can give us safe cover in caves. Let’s hear the other ideas before we pick one though.”

Everyone thought more and talked a bit. They agreed that going through the rainforest could be a good idea, but the queen would probably see the group of different tribes going the rainforest as suspicious, so that turned into a no-go. Slate suggested going through the sky kingdom and taking shelter at the lowest cave in the kingdom so that nobody would notice them. Nobody agreed of course. The sea was a no, since only Dike would be able to breath down there, and the fact that all of them would be in danger. Sleet’s option was still the best at the moment, and Dagex thought so too. 

“What about the Sand kingdom? Like the scorpion den?” Vare asked. Draacos didn’t say anything for a moment.

“No. They’d just kill us all. None of us are Sandwings, Vare,” Draacos said, bluntly.

_ Let me guess...secrets. _

**_“Yep.”_ ** Dagex got extremely close to jumping out of surprise right there.

_ Don’t do that! You scared me to death! _

**_“Well excuuuuuse me!”_ ** It half mocked. After a bit, everyone was trying to decide between the diamond spray (Sleet suggested that they stop there for supplies, and also since they wouldn’t be judged at all there), or going to the sand kingdom and seeing if the queen will let them have shelter. 

“Ok,” Draacos said, “I hate to say it, but it looks like we need to split up.”

Dagex looked around. 

“Wait...Isn’t Rainshard supposed to be here?” He asked.

“I didn’t tell them that she was part of this. She doesn’t need to go through any of this,” Draacos simply told him.

“Thank you, Draacos. Now, who’s gonna go where?”

“Sleet will lead a team through the mountains. Dagex, you will lead the other team.” Draacos said. The eight of them split off into two teams. Sleet, Draacos, Vare, and Rin flew off to go through the mountains, while Dagex, Slate, Dike, and MuteSpeaker went off to the sand kingdom.

Dagex’s group had gotten to the edge of the mountain area; right next to the sand kingdom.

“It’s gonna be quite a long fly, isn’t it?” Dike asked, looking out at the desert. Dagex didn’t know, but he assumed so.

“I think so. Shouldn’t be to long for us to get to the scorpion den, at the very least,” Dagex responded. 

**_“I mean, unless you fly, of course,”_ ** the voice in Dagex’s head retorted.

_ Oh shush. By the way, what in three moons do I call you?  _

**_“Just call me X. I don’t prefer to say me actual name.”_ ** X said.

_ Fair enough. Ok, X. At least it won’t sound weird. _

“Do we have to walk?” Dike whined. Slate rolled her eyes at the seawing.

“Yes. If we fly, then someone might see us easier and assume the worst,” Dagex responded. Dike just groaned and buried his head in the ground.

_ Why did we have to take this guy? _ Dagex thought, and sighed when X didn’t give any insight. Dike was part of this, for some reason; Dagex just had to put up with it.

Dagex looked at his pendant. Slate looked at him weird.

“What is that thing, anyway? Does it have anything to do with a certain prophecy?” She joked, nudging him. Dagex smiled at her.

“I think so. Everyone is supposed to get one at some point,” He said, and both Dike and MuteSpeaker perked up, the latter writing on his board. Dagex waited till he was done and showed it to him. It said:  _ Something to do with potential, right? _

Dagex nodded, and Mute tapped his board twice to erase the writing. 

**_“Gotta admit...you generation Z dragonets are pretty smart when it comes to these kinds of things.”_ ** X said to Dagex.

_ Thanks...I think. _

“Weird,” Slate started, confused, “Do they let us phase through stuff like yours?” Dagex shrugged. “Hmmm...well! Doesn’t matter at the moment,” she said, cheerfully as usual.

Night started to come, and the group set up shop in a small section of caves. Dagex was the only one awake; staring into space and thinking...well, talking to X, honestly.

_ So, where are you? Are you an animus? _

**_“In a way, but really just a natural power, and where I am doesn’t concern you.”_ **

_ Ok. Have anything to say? _

**_“Plot wise? Nah.”_ **

_ What? _

**_“It’s nothing.”_ **

_ Um...ok. By the way, why is it that  _ I’m  _ the...uh… _

**_“The ‘chosen one’.”_ **

_ Ya, that. Why am I? _

**_“Don’t know. I didn’t choose you.”_ ** Silence between the two fell for a minute or so, until Dagex broke it.

_ X? Do you know anything about my father? _

**_“No. No I do not.”_ ** That made Dagex sigh. X really didn’t know anything worthwhile. Then again, of course he wouldn't. The universe won’t let him have answers.

**_“I can tell you one thing, Dagex.”_ ** X said after a bit. Dagex waited for him to talk. 

**_“One of your friends are in danger.”_ **

Dagex looked down.  _ One  _ of them. It was most likely Dike. Dagex had to watch him; protect him. The only problem was, what if he’s wrong? It could be one of the other group. If that was true, who would be in danger? 

And more importantly, from what?


	23. Chapter 23

Chapter 23

 

Draacos’s group had been flying all day after Sleet found out that the place Dike had suggested was where Sanctuary, a place where dragons of all tribes live together, is located. Sleet told them they should go there instead.

“Forgot the name of that place. Thought it was in the delta honestly,” she said. 

They reached the town a short while later; the sun almost completely gone by now.

Most of the dragons were starting to go back inside their homes. 

“So, where do we go?” Sleet asked. Draacos looked around. This place wasn’t familiar to him. 

“I have no idea. Never been here,” he said simply. They walked through the town more, and a few dragons gave the group some looks; not hostile, just the regular kinds. Except they were all looking at Draacos. He heard some whispers, like  _ is that a hybrid? What's with the weird crusty looking scales?  _ And other things. 

“Well, this seems as friendly as I pictured,” Sleet said, snorting. 

“Ya...thought this place was supposed to be, you know, harmony and stuff,” Vare added, staring one of the dragons in the eyes, before Rin pushed him along.

“Let’s just find a cave to sleep in for the night, ok?” Draacos suggested.

“Fine, but I get the best spot,” Sleet asserted. Draacos rolled his eyes at her.

They looked around for a bit before settling on a decently large cave, and settling in. Rin and Vare looked fine with it, yet Sleet was having a bit of trouble. The three eventually fell asleep, while Draacos stayed awake.

_ Something’s wrong.  _ He told himself. He could feel it: Something was very wrong. The darkwings weren’t the problem though...something else was off balance. Draacos held his head, thinking of what it could be. He wasn’t a seer; neither was his father, as far as he knew, so he couldn’t just look into the future. He could  _ feel  _ it though. He knew something terrible had just been set into motion. Draacos couldn’t tell  _ how  _ bad it would turn as time went on, but it didn't feel good.

Draacos winced; his head hurt more. Whatever was coming, it had just gotten worse somehow, like it’s trying to skip through time and space itself.

Then, it...went away. Draacos’s head stopped hurting, and the bad feeling did as well.

_ What in the...what  _ was  _ that?  _ Draacos tried to think again, wanting to locate the feeling. It wouldn’t work: it was gone. Vanished into the abyss. He went to asleep like the others. He needed rest.

The next morning, all four of the dragons woke to a loud noise. A  _ very  _ loud noise. They looked to the town and saw fire. Somebody had attacked the town. Everyone got up and ran towards the town. Dragons everywhere were either running, or trying to put the fires out, which they seemed to be doing a good job of. Draacos saw a couple guards pulling away a pair of skywings.

“WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU!” One of the skywings yelled.

“YA! WE DIDN’T DO ANYTHING!” The other roared.

“All we know is that skywings did this! All of them need to be rounded up and interrogated,” the icewing guard said, calmly. The skywings huffed, but complied.

“Vare,” Draacos whispered, “We should probably get you out of here.”

It was too late. A Sandwing guard tackled Vare to the ground, and soon other guards came to get the other three away from the struggling skywing. 

“Wait! We were in the caves! We didn’t know about this!” Rin stated, which actually made the guards holding them stop in place and look at the group.

“Hmm...that may be so, but,” started the sandwing, “ _ this  _ one has a history with...attacks.”

Vare growled, and his snout was tied shut so he couldn't use his fire.

“Three years ago, he was part of a group of skywings. They weren’t friendly, to put it simply. They seemed to be hunting down a certain nightwing. His name was Daggerlight, if I remember correctly. They apparently went to his mate’s home and...well—” the sandwing was cut off by another guard, a Nightwing.

“And they killed his mate. Sliced her head clean off...ugh.”

_ No… _ Draacos thought.  _ It couldn’t be. _

“This skywing was a part of that group. The group even admitted that he had even done the deed, and that the others in the group were frightened at the fact he  _ killed  _ someone, especially like that.”

Vare tried to explain, but his mouth was shut.

“Later today...we will have to get rid of him,” the sandwing said.

“How?” Draacos asked, knowing where this was leading. The sandwing paused for a moment, then spoke.

“Execution.”


	24. Chapter 24

Chapter 24

 

“Wait! You can’t kill him!” Draacos yelled at the guards. “We can get him an alibi! The seawing has a son who saw the whole thing. His name is Dagex. All of us are friends. He can testify for Vare.”

The guards looked at Draacos, then at each other.

“Why should we listen to you? Maybe you two are working together,” the Nightwing scoffed. The sandwing prodded the nightwing with his spear.

“Stop it, Mace,” he started, looking at Draacos, “If this ‘Dagex’ really was there, where is he now?”

Draacos explained how they had to split up to find a good place to stay for awhile, but left out the whole prophecy part as not to draw even more attention. Mace looked Draacos right in the eyes.

“A likely story,” The nightwing said, and Draacos just looked back at him. “But  _ I  _ don’t believe you. And neither does Voren.”

The sandwing flicked Mace in the head with a claw.

“Will you shut up! These dragonets aren’t criminals,” The sandwing, Voren, sighed, letting Vare go, who immediately ripped his ropes off. Rin made sure to lead Vare away a few feet so he wouldn’t attack the guards.

“Thank you,” Draacos said.

“By the way...what  _ are  _ you? You look like a hybrid,” Voren asked; Mace nodding in agreement. 

_ Of course, _ Draacos thought. Of course they would ask the worst question for Draacos to hear right now...other then  _ How about we backstab you? _

“Yes, Nightwing and Mudwing Hybrid,” Draacos lied, yet the guards took it. Only the two guards were still here, since they had things under control. 

“We’re watching you four,” Mace said.

“Sorry, but it looks like we can’t be here, so we’re going to have to leave,” Draacos responded, showing no emotion like always. The two guards looked at them, then started to walk away. As they were talking, the town had been devoid of the fire. It looked like it would be ok.  _ But who did it? _ Draacos asked himself.

“Let’s go,” Sleet said, impatiently, “If we have to leave we should just do so.”

Draacos nodded, and the four took to the skies.

  
  


Dagex’s group had gotten up early and were currently walking through the kingdom of sand still.  **_“Looks like the issue has resolved itself.”_ ** X said to Dagex, who’s face looked a bit confused.

_ What do you mean, X? _

**_“Whatever I felt...I think that Darkwing saved your friend from that danger I sensed.”_ **

_ Wait, you know about the Darkwings? _

**_“Yep.”_ ** There was silence for a long while between the two.  _ I’m glad Draacos is part of this. He’s a great friend. _ Dagex said to himself

“We’ve been walking for so long,” Dike whined, “Please tell me that we can stop at the scorpion den to rest.” Dagex looked back at the others, Dike specifically, with a ‘ _ Seriously? What do you think?’  _ kind of look.

“Yes, Dike. Of course we’re going to stop there. Why would we walk through the entire kingdom in one stretch?”

“Sorry…” Dike mumbled, looking down. Slate walked next to him and tried to comfort him. Of course, it pretty much works. MuteSpeaker started writing; catching up to Dagex. He looked at Dagex and showed his board:  _ Is something wrong, Dagex? You seem tense. _ MuteSpeaker was looking at him with a sympathetic and slightly worried expression. Dagex sighed, and answered him.

“Honestly, no. I’m hungry, and I’ve learned so much about my father...things I wish I didn’t know. There’s also the obvious pressure of this whole prophecy thing.”

Mutespeaker was already writing his response, and showed Dagex.

_ Try not to worry. Nothing serious has happened right? So we’re okay right now. _

Dagex smiled.

“Thank you. I just hope the whole situation doesn’t result in anything...chaotic.”

**_“I can guarantee that it will, if you choose the wrong paths.”_ **

_ Oh shush, X. _

The scorpion den came into view, and all four of the dragons sighed. So much walking hurt quite a bit, to be honest. 

“Finally!” Dike exclaimed. “We can get some food!”

“Don’t be so sure,” Slate corrected him, and everyone looked at her. “I don’t know if it’s changed much, but food is kind of reserved for certain dragons. I heard that Queen Thorn changed the rules to help everyone, but I don’t know if its true or not.”

Dike sighed, but Dagex just looked forward.

_ Maybe not the best for a place to stay, but...it will have to do. I just hope the dragons here will be friendly.  _ Dagex thought as they all walked towards the scorpion den.

Mutespeaker suddenly stopped right in his tracks.

All of them looked back and saw him shaking.

“What’s wrong?” Slate asked, concerned. Mutespeaker motioned his head for everyone to look up at the top of one of the arch connected two structures.

All three gasped. Something was pinned to the arch.

And that something was three Sandwings.


	25. Chapter 25

Chapter 25

 

Dike hid his head, panicking inside. Slate and Dagex just stared at the bodies in horror. Two young Dragonets and their parent. Neither could tell what gender any of them were, though. Their wings were pinned up like the dragons themselves on the arch. The dragons must have had a painful, slow demise. There were many cuts and gashes all over them. Their eyes had been gouged out, and they were pinned to arch by about a dozen strong arrows in the neck and some material Dagex didn't know well, but it was probably how they were still stuck up there. 

**_“Things_ ** **have** **_changed…”_ **

“Dagex,” Slate whispered to him, “We can’t stay here.”

“No. We’re supposed to be heros, right? We can help!” Dagex explained.

“Dagex, we’ll get ourselves killed!”

“Ya!” Dike said, backing Slate up. “I don’t want to die.”

_ X, what do you think? _

**_“I say try. You’re right, Dagex. You might be able to help.”_ **

_ Good.  _ Dagex kept walking, not caring of everyone else wanted to go or not., then stopped as X spoke again.

**_“_ ** **Only** **_if you have your friends with you. You can’t go alone.”_ **

Dagex sighed, and looked at his friends.

“Please. I don’t want to have to go in alone. We were chosen to be heros. None of us have realized their potential.” He said to them.

“Fine,” Slate sighed, and Dike perked up. Mutespeaker nodded and walked up to Dagex; Slate and Dike soon following. “Just keep us safe, Dagex. I trust you.”

Dagex nodded, though on the inside he was asking X if he could even do that.

**_“That’s not my decision. You make your own path. The outcome depends on your actions. I’m just here to help you not choose the absolute world ending choices.”_ **

_ Fine. I’m just glad you’re here to help me. _

The four entered the scorpion den to the average sight. Everything was mostly normal, but the problem was that nobody was extremely worried about any dead sandwings. Either they didn’t know, or those Sandwings were evil dragons.

_ But then why would they be pinned up? _ Dagex thought to himself. It really seemed strange and, well, brutal...especially for the dragonets that were killed. 

“This place seems too calm,” Slate whispered, putting her head down a bit. Dragons looked at them left and right, staring at the group.

_ Any advice, X? _

**_“Just keep moving. Ignore them and you should be fine, even if they approach you.”_ **

Dagex whispered the same words to the others, who nodded. They kept walking until they reached an inn. They went in and were greeted by a gruff looking sandwing at the counter.

“Strange seeing other tribes in the scorpion den…” He said, nearly growling. Dagex walked right up to the sandwing.

“We’re just stopping by to rest. We will be on our way out tonight.” Dagex said, assertively. The sandwing looked over the group.

“Fine, but don’t make an impression while your here.” He said as he led the group to their sleeping quarters. Mutespeaker made sure to pay the sandwing. 

Right when they got into their quarters, Dagex layed down on a stone bed.

“If you guys wanna, you know, explore, you can. I’m gonna get some more rest.” Dagex said, yawning. 

“Um...I’d rather stay here,” Dike responded, “Wh-where it’s safe.

_ The sandwing said not to make an impression. It would be unwise to go out an, well, mingle or anything.  _ Mutespeaker wrote. 

“Ya, we should all stay here,” Slate said, smiling at the others. Dagex smiled back, and went right to sleep. 

 

He woke up exactly where he needed to.

“Ok, strange void dragon,” Dagex yelled into the abyss, “Give me answers!”

Nothing responded for a moment, but, as to be expected, the lavender horned dragon pretty much materialized in front of him. The two stared deep into the others eyes with no emotions on their faces for another few moments.

“Why do you want to know everything?” It asked Dagex, “Why now? It hasn’t properly started yet.”

“What do you mean?” 

Dagex didn’t get a response. He narrowed his eyes. “Also, for simplicity’s sake, what in three moons do I call you?”

That made the dragon smirk, and chains suddenly wrapped around Dagex. The dragon walked towards Dagex, and could be seen in full. He was a dark purple, dark enough to blend right into the void. The only other thing that was worth mentioning was the massive streaks of crimson blood on his underbelly and on his snout and jaw.

“Dagex,” Daggerlight grinned.

“You can call me father.”


	26. Chapter 26

Chapter 26

 

Dagex’s reaction to this revelation was, to Daggerlight’s misfortune, wasn’t strong. He just rolled his eyes; he was surprised, but he had to admit that he saw it coming right before it happened.

“Ok, this isn’t the thing I should ask but...why the chains?” Dagex asked, and got a scoff as a response. He just waited for his father to answer.

“You’ll see,” He said simply. Dagex rolled his eyes once again.

“Kinky,” he said, to which a spear came and impaled him right in the side, making him yelp in pain.

“Make another remark like that and the next will pierce your heart,” Daggerlight growled. 

“Fine, sorry. But you didn’t have to chain me up. I can’t exactly go anywhere, you know.”

Daggerlight sighed and shook his head.

“This could have been  _ so  _ much easier, Dagex,” he started, and Dagex tilted his head slightly, “But those  _ SKYWINGS  _ had to come and  _ COMPLETELY RUIN EVERYTHING!”  _ The void they were in started to look like it was cracking, like the anger coming from Daggerlight was breaking up the whole existence itself. “If I was there! I could’ve saved her!” He looked right at Dagex, teeth barred, then quickly shook his head and frowned. The void went back to normal, and Daggerlight sighed.

“No, it’s not your fault. It’s not your fault Tsuno’s dead. That’s mine for leaving. It’s just that everything would have gone so smoothly if I was there to protect her. I could have raised you and your sister properly. By the way, what did they name her...just incase I see her.”

“Rainshard,” Dagex responded weakly. Daggerlight smiled, but it made Dagex uncomfortable nonetheless.

“Honestly...Even if you aren’t...you know, evil, and if you have to kill me or something, I’m just glad you’re alive. Both of you.”

There was a moment of silence, one that neither dragon wanted to break. But Dagex  _ had  _ too. He had questions.

“Father, are you one of  _ them?  _ Are you evil?” Dagex asked. Daggerlight didn't respond in any way. Dagex grew irritated. “Answer me!” He yelled.

“Yes, I’m a Darkwing, And…I’m not exactly  _ evil. _ ..well, not completely, at the very least.” Daggerlight answered. “But we don’t need to talk about this right now, Dagex. The only thing I need to tell you is this: don’t let the Darkwings corrupt you. Even if I have to join their side for reasons you should know...don’t do the same. I would love for you to help them once I  _ do  _ join their cause, but that's not your path. You and your friends are meant to slay them.” Daggerlight looked down, like there was something in there with the two.

“You mean I—”

“Yes, you have to kill them.”

“What about Draacos?”

Daggerlight hesitated, and thought for a moment.

“Draacos...he’s fine,” He said, and Dagex sighed in relief. “If it wasn't for him...and in the future...you wouldn’t get anywhere. He’s pure, somehow. I wouldn’t be surprised if  _ he  _ is the one who’s supposed to save the world; that all of you are  _ his  _ friends, not all of them being  _ yours. _ ..but that’s not true. It apparently is one of my dragonets. Could be you or even Rainshard.” Daggerlight sighed and unchained Dagex. “One more thing, son...if I join the Darkwings soon...we might try to kill you and your friends. Protect them, for your sake.” Dagex nodded, and the void, and Daggerlight, started to fade out of existence as he gained consciousness. He woke up in a medical room, bandages on his side...the same spot Daggerlight had impaled him.

_ The wound...it came into reality.  _

“Dagex!” Slate said and put her snout right next to him, and the two smiled at each other. Dike and Mutespeaker were there too. “What happened to you? H-How did that hole just appear?”

“I will explain in a bit.”

Once he was let out of the room, he told his friends everything...about his father, the dreams where the two would talk, what his father said to him, and about the wound, which by that point was the least interesting thing to the group.

“So what you’re saying is,” Slate started quietly, “All of us are pretty much doomed, right.” Dagex looked to her. Slate looked like she was about to cry. Dagex twined his tail with her, and her head faced him, trying to smile.

“I’m not letting anything happen to you, or any of us. We’re all going to be ok, Slate. All of us will.”

Tears fell down Slate’s face, and she hugged Dagex the best a dragon could do. She tried to thank him, but her tears were making it hard. Dagex hugged her back.

_ I mean it, Slate. _

_ All of us will be ok. _

_ Nothing will happen to us. _

_ Nothing, as long as we stick together. _

_ I love you Slate. Too much to let you get hurt. _

Dagex looked up at the sky. The sun had started to set. They had to go back and meet up with the others. “We have to get to Draacos and the others. Come on,” Dagex said, and the group walked back towards the mountain.

_ Father...I will find you. If I have to kill you, I will be strong enough to do so. _

_ I’ll save pyrrhia. No matter how long it takes. _

_ ………………………………………………………………………………………………… _

 

End of issue #1

If you like this story series so far, please tell me. Can’t wait to make the second part (which already has five chapters done, YEE!). Can’t wait to hear some feedback from the people reading this, and have a Qibli-Slapping great day :D.


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